Industrial microscopes help photovoltaic customers reduce costs and increase efficiency

As global warming intensifies, temperatures are gradually rising
in recent decades.
According to the forecast of the meteorological department, this year may be the coolest summer
in the next dozen years.
Along with frequent extreme weather, there are also a series of problems
caused by the greenhouse effect, such as species decline and sea level rise.
Therefore, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and finding alternative clean energy is a common challenge facing mankind, and at the same time, it makes us full of confidence
in the future development of the new energy industry.

"Reduce costs and increase efficiency",

The eternal theme of energy conservation

Crystalline silicon solar cells are devices
that use the photovoltaic effect of semiconductors to convert solar energy into electricity.
Photoelectric conversion efficiency is an important index for evaluating solar cells, and obtaining a light-trapping structure on the surface of silicon wafers to achieve more efficient optical management and increase light capture efficiency is a direct way to
improve photoelectric conversion efficiency.

Common light trapping strategies include: the battery surface is coated with an anti-reflection layer to reduce reflection loss; Increase the internal optical path of the battery; Reduction of transmission loss, etc
.
Physical etching and chemical etching on the surface of crystalline silicon to form a pyramid-shaped suede surface is one of
the most common and effective light trapping strategies.
Therefore, the observation, measurement and counting of the suede pyramid can evaluate the influence of the etching process on the surface structure and photoelectric conversion efficiency for process optimization and quality management
.

Microscopic suede pyramid strength image

The Olympus OLS5100 laser confocal microscope uses a 405nm laser light source with a maximum magnification of 17,200x and a minimum resolution of 120 nm
.
At the same time, the z-axis is equipped with a 0.
78nm grating ruler, which can resolve small undulations as low as 6nm, so that users can intuitively observe and measure a series of important parameters such as width, height, volume, surface area, surface area ratio and other important parameters
of each pyramid light trapping structure through 3D microscopic images in the optimization and quality evaluation of the texturing process.

Olympus OLS5100 laser confocal microscope

software and hardware collocation,

Good horse with good saddle

In addition, Evident has launched a special analysis software for the texturing process, which will perform a more systematic and comprehensive analysis of high-precision 3D data, automatically obtain the volume and specific surface area of each pyramid on the pile, and calculate the number of area pyramids and the proportion of pyramids of
different sizes.

Use the software for pyramid counting and size distribution analysis

In addition to the observation and analysis of velvet, industrial microscopes have key applications
in the process of crystalline silicon surface observation and analysis, electrode grid measurement, laser lithography observation, routine inspection, failure analysis, etc.

Laser lithography points

Fence measurement

Thanks to the simple and fast observation method, high accuracy and repeatable measurement and analysis results of laser confocal microscope and its software, OLS5100 plays a role in the R&D, production, quality inspection and other departments of photovoltaic enterprises, and has won unanimous praise
from customers.
In the future, Evident will follow industry and process trends and launch richer and more flexible solutions to help the PV industry reduce costs and increase efficiency, and achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality as soon as possible
.