Your daily dose of photovoltaic technology developments and solar news

• Popular Technical Papers

  • Overview of automation in the photovoltaic industry
  • Understanding moisture ingress and packaging requirements for photovoltaic modules
  • PV sector outlook: an analyst’s perspective
  • Inline processing of crystalline silicon solar cells: the holy grail for large-scale manufacturing?
  • Photovoltaic industry 2009: a journey into uncertainty

• Featured Technical Papers

  • Cost reduction and productivity improvement strategies for multicrystalline wafering processes
  • DERlab round-robin testing of photovoltaic single-phase inverters
  • Methods of emitter formation for crystalline silicon solar cells
  • Advantages and shortcomings of UMG silicon in photovoltaic device production
  • Novel spectroscopy and spectrometry techniques for the quantitative analysis of PV

Chemical stoichiometry along with depth profiling and metallic contamination is of considerable interest for photovoltaic thin films. Conversion efficiency can be affected for example if primary components, e.g. Cd and Te, are not present at proper ratios. Moreover, amorphous silicon can vary substantially between sources and deposition technique, and qualitative comparison of trace metallic contaminants may not be sufficient to ensure final thin-film quality. This discussion presents data from atomic emission and mass spectrometry techniques that quantitatively and accurately describe both bulk and trace elemental compositions in photovoltaic materials, various thin-film matrices, and the final thin-film cell and module.

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