Challenges for EFG ribbon technology on the path to large scale manufacturing

Author

Kalejs, J. ; Schmidt, W. ; Schwirtlich, I. ; Hoffmann, W.

Author_Institution

RWE SCHOTT Solar, Inc., Billerica, MA, USA

fYear

2005

Firstpage

1301

Lastpage

1304

Abstract

Manufacturing processes based on polycrystalline silicon wafers produced by the edge-defined film-fed growth (EFG) technique have reached a mature and competitive status at RWE Schott Solar and a capacity of over 40 MW is now established. EFG ribbon production represents the single largest alternative photovoltaic technology to conventional single crystal polycrystalline silicon wafers produced from ingots of various types, e.g., casting, directional solidification and Czochralski, which currently dominate the industry. Challenges and barriers to continued growth and competitiveness of ribbon technologies are discussed in this paper.

Keywords

crystal growth from melt; elemental semiconductors; ingots; integrated circuit manufacture; semiconductor growth; silicon; Czochralski growth; EFG ribbon technology; Si; casting; directional solidification; edge-defined film-fed growth technique; ingots; large scale manufacturing; photovoltaic technology; polycrystalline silicon wafers; Casting; Costs; Crystallization; Explosives; Large-scale systems; Manufacturing; Production; Productivity; Research and development; Silicon;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2005. Conference Record of the Thirty-first IEEE

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8707-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2005.1488379

Filename

1488379