SBIR Phase II: Real Time Optical Control System for Thin Film Solar Cell Manufacturing

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目旨在开发实时过程控制系统，以改进薄膜太阳能电池板、固态照明、触摸屏显示器、光学和电信等薄膜产品的制造。光伏是可再生能源组合的重要组成部分，但它们需要更高效，才能与现有的化石燃料方法竞争。该系统将能够动态控制和纠正薄膜沉积过程，以便将每种产品保持在其目标规格内，减少甚至消除废品。它允许制造更一致、更均匀的太阳能电池板，从而提高太阳能转换效率、降低成本和提高制造产量。第二阶段的目标是进一步开发和改进在第一阶段和第二阶段下开发的原型系统，并对两种最常见的薄膜太阳能电池板制造结构进行验证。本项目将完成非晶硅太阳能电池板制造中薄膜生长监控的硬件/软件开发和验证。第二阶段将消除技术风险，使监测系统能够快速商业化。将进行进一步的开发，以最终确定系统的控制部件。该项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是促进对薄膜在沉积过程中如何生长的科学理解。它将帮助薄膜太阳能电池板制造商开发更高质量的产品。该系统将提高生产精度，减少生产缺陷，并使制造过程不太容易受到工艺参数漂移和错误的影响，特别是对于先进的薄膜产品。该项目的商业影响是，制造商将(I)提高太阳能电池板的效率和制造产量，(Ii)降低制造成本，(Iii)增加收入和利润。建议的技术提供了一个创新的平台解决方案，可以进一步改进，以实现无废物薄膜制造，几乎不需要人与人互动。如果只有30%的薄膜制造商采用这一系统，到2015年将节省约10亿美元。该项目的社会影响是有助于使太阳能电池板成为与现有化石燃料方法相比具有竞争力的能源。该系统将使制造商能够满足市场对低成本太阳能产品的需求，这将加快全球对光伏的采用，从而帮助减少全球变暖，减少我们对石油的依赖。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is directed at developing a real time process control system for improving manufacturing of thin film products such as thin film solar panels, solid state lighting, touch screen displays, optics and telecommunications. Photovoltaics are a vital component of the renewable energy mix but they need to be more efficient to be competitive against existing fossil fuel approaches. The system will be able todynamically control and correct the film deposition process in order to keep each product within its targeted specification, reducing and even eliminating rejects. It allows manufacturing of more consistent and uniform solar panels resulting in higher solar conversion efficiency, reduced cost and increased manufacturing yield. The objective of this Phase II is to further develop and improve the prototype system developed under Phase I and IB and validate it for two most common thin film solar panel manufacturing configurations.This project will complete the hardware / software development and validation for monitoring film growth for amorphous silicon solar panel manufacturing. Phase II will remove technical risk allowing fast commercialization of the monitoring system. Additional development will be performed to finalize the control component of the system.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is to advance the scientific understanding of how thin films grow during deposition. It will help thin film solar panel manufacturers to develop higher quality products. The system will improve production accuracy, reduce production flawsand make the manufacturing process less susceptible to process parameter drifts and errors,especially for advanced thin-film products. The commercial impact of the project is that manufacturers will (i) increase solar panel efficiency and manufacturing yield, (ii) reduce manufacturing cost, and (iii) increase revenue and profit. The proposed technology provides an innovative platform solution that can be further improved in order to achieve waste-free thin film manufacturing with little human interaction. This system, ifadopted by only 30% of the thin film manufacturers will result in roughly $1 billion in savings by 2015. The societal impact of the project is to help make solar panels a competitive source of energy against existing fossil fuel approaches. The system will allow manufacturers to meet the market demand for lower cost solar products which will accelerate PV adoption worldwide thus helping to reduce global warming and reduce our dependence on oil.