Advanced automation techniques for interconnecting thin silicon solar cells

The objective of this work is to reduce the cost and improve the quality of terrestrial photovoltaic modules by developing automated high-throughput (5 MW/yr) processes for interconnecting thin silicon solar cells. New low-stress, high-throughput processes have been developed for cell loading, alignment, and inspection, interconnect ribbon handling, flux application, ribbon-to-cell soldering, cell string handling, and I-V testing of assembled cell strings. Both standard thickness (350 /spl mu/m) and thin (200 /spl mu/m) cells have been used to evaluate and refine these processes.