Quality Control in Manufacturing

With an annual production of more than 100 GWp, equivalent to more than 25 trillion solar cells, the photovoltaic industry has developed into a high-throughput technology with a high degree of automation. However, such state-of-the-art technologies and trends in the photovoltaic industry pose special challenges along the entire manufacturing chain. Cycle times of less than one second in the manufacture of highly efficient solar cells with stable energy yields require new technological solutions for both inline measurement technology and the automated evaluation of the huge amounts of data generated. This is increasing the need for metrological monitoring of key parameters in the production process in order to identify weak points and quality deviations at the earliest possible stage. Inline measurement systems and statistical analyses of measurement parameters and process data already offer manufacturers, suppliers, and machine builders opportunities to improve product quality. What is currently lacking, however, is the consistent implementation of automated, digitally networked, and measurement data-based process control and monitoring within the manufacturing chain.

At this point, Fraunhofer CSP, together with its project partners WAVELABS Solar Metrology Systems GmbH, HEGLA boraident GmbH & Co. KG, ASYS Automatisierungssysteme GmbH, and CE Cell Engineering GmbH, began developing and expanding the MK4 platform. As part of a two-year project, the Photovoltaics 4.0-compatible measurement and classification platform was developed for working on current research and development topics in the fields of correlative data analysis, machine learning, and adaptive control processes in order to achieve process and method development under production-related conditions.