Silicon solar cell production

A significant role can be played by the systems engineering community in the optimization of the production process for silicon solar cells. Many of the techniques utilized for cell manufacturing are of recent origin and the amount of experience in the industry as a whole is limited. Some of the individual processes and steps are poorly adapted for continuous production since they were designed for micro-electronics applications rather than photovoltaics. Only very recently has the industry grown to the point where intermediate products, such as solar grade silicon, solar silicon wafers, solar cells and solar panels are commodities having global market potential. Finally, industry consolidation has generated large commercial entities which can better take advantage of tools from process systems engineering. The chemical and process systems and engineering communities can contribute to this booming industry by providing methods for improved control, process optimization and retro-fitting of existing processes, as well as encouraging process innovation and scale-up. This paper describes the complete production process for solar cells, highlights challenges relevant to systems engineering, and overviews work in three distinct areas: the application of real time optimization in silicon production, the development of scale-up models for a fluidized bed poly-silicon process and a new process concept for silicon wafer production.