Application of an image processing software tool to crack inspection of crystalline silicon solar cells

In this paper, we try to design and integrate an Automatic Optical Inspection System for inspection of polycrystalline silicon solar cells or modules, emphasizing on its image processing, measurement and analysis software utilities. Based on the cell intensity images captured by the electroluminescence imaging technique, we propose an inspecting procedure by using the Windows-based user interface to implement the average gray level tool, the thresholding tool, the positioning tool, the edge detection tool, the binary large object (BLOB) tool and the template matching tool. We use several sample images provided by the supplier to verify the software tool and receive accurate results.