Product Code: ICA10_M1306

Development of Wide Operational Range Fiber Laser for Processing Thin Film Photovoltaic Panels
Authors:
Shinobu Tamaoki, Sumitomo Electric Industries., Ltd.,; Yokohama Japan
Yasuomi Kaneuchi, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd.; Yokohama Japan
Motoki Kakui, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd.; Yokohama Japan
Brian Baird, Summit Photonics LLC; Lake Oswego OR USA
Naba R. Paudel, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Toledo; Toledo OR USA
Kristopher Wieland, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Toledo; Toledo OH USA
Presented at ICALEO 2010

Continued reduction of production costs for the manufacture of thin film photovoltaic solar panels is required to support the ongoing broad adoption of this important technology. Laser scribing is an integral manufacturing process for the production of monolithically-integrated thin film solar cells. An advanced generation 1.06um pulsed fiber master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) has recently been developed with performance attributes designed to meet current and next generation thin film laser scribing requirements for proving thin film solar cell device efficiencies,
throughput, and yield. It features broad pulsewidth flexibility with excellent beam quality and stable pulse output over a wide range of pulse repetition frequencies (50 KHz - 1 MHz). These performance attributes are expected to enable advanced laser process developments for a-Si, CdTe, CIGS, and advanced thin film PV cell designs. Recent experimental process results will be presented, including SEM, EDX, and electrical isolation measurements, for scribing P1 a-Si and P1 CdTe samples employing a 20 ns pulsewidth at a pulse repetition frequency of 160 KHz and scribing speed of
2500 mm/s.