PES Industrial Field Visit: SolarSemiconductor manufacturing facility: Saturday, July 21, 2012

[Mithun M. Bhaskar]

The Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Hyd. Section

PES/IAS/PELS Joint Chapter

Invites you for
Industrial Field Visit to

Solar Semiconductor Ltd

ISO 9001:2008 certified, Solar Energy solutions manufacturing facility

 

Date       :  Saturday, July 21, 2012

Time       :  09:30 AM – 04:00 PM

 The 'Fabcity' manufacturing plant of Solar Semiconductor spawns over 50 acres with state-of-the-art equipment and a world-class testing laboratory with an annual capacity of 195 MW. The manufactured PV modules are certified for safety and performance by international laboratories UL, CSA, TUV Rheinland and VDE. The plant deploys robotics at every critical step in the manufacturing process and manual intervention is minimized to ensure high quality. The participants will get a chance to visit

·         Power Plant

Two 100 KWp power plants designed and developed in-house provides backup power for the manufacturing facility.

·         Cell Manufacturing

Cells are manufactured form crystalline silicon wafers through various process steps like Texturization, doping, ARC deposition, Metallization, etc., in a cleanroom environment.  The cells are finally sorted using sophisticated testing and sorting machines. The incoming wafers are tested for material and electrical properties.

·         Module Manufacturing

Incoming cells are tested for defects using vision and other systems. Defective cells are automatically sorted out before the tabbing/stringing process. The strings of cells are automatically laid up in the desired configuration (on glass and EVA cut to size) by robots that ensure proper spacing between strings. Another layer of EVA is followed by Tedlar® back cover and the fully laid up module is inspected prior to the lamination process. After lamination, edges will be trimmed, foam tape will be fixed around the edges and frame the module. These modules then undergo several electrical, mechanical and Quality Control checks. The performance of every module is verified in a Sun-simulator.

·         Tabber & Stringer

Solar Semiconductor employs equipment that can handle 160 micron cells, 2 Busbar and 3 Busbar cells. The Tabber is used to interconnect cells in a string, uses vacuum suction cups to pick cells and a vision system camera to check for any cell defects/breakages.

·         Automation Unit

The advanced automation unit at Solar Semiconductor comes with Twin Robot System. These Robotic systems speed up the manufacturing process and enhance efficiency. It also helps in increasing productivity, minimizing errors and life cycle costs.

·         Sun Simulator

The testing for electrical parameters is done by using the most advanced class AAA - pulsed type ‘Sun Simulators’. Solar Semiconductor’s reference modules are calibrated at Fraunhofer ISE, Germany and CIEMAT, Spain on a regular basis.

·         Laminators

The encapsulation process involves vacuum pressing the array sandwich (glass – EVA – array – EVA – backsheet). The pressing melts the fast cure EVA, which then acts as an adhesive and bonds the backsheet and the glass sheet with the cell array to make it weather and dust proof.

·         Framing

The laminate is trimmed and then taped with a double sided adhesive foam tape. This trimmed laminate is then framed using an in-house developed automatic frame-fitter. This is followed by junction box fitting, which is done manually.

·         Reliability Lab

The Reliability Testing Lab at Solar Semiconductor has been set up for in-house testing of prototype modules, new materials and production modules as per RMP (Reliability Monitoring Plan). It enables self certification of products and speeds up new process qualification and certification process. It is first of its kind in India, set-up with guidance from Underwriter Labs, USA and TUV Rheinland, Germany.

 

Registrations: 

·         This event is exclusively for IEEE members.

·         There are no charges for participating in this PES field trip.

·         Transport and working lunch are been arranged by IEEE PES and details will be Intimated to confirmed participants.

·         Registrations are limited to 40;     10 - senior members, 10 - members, 10 -Industry/Academia/Research Lab and 10 - Students.

 

Online registration at https://meetings.vtools.ieee.org/meeting_view/list_meeting/13091

Note: Members are requested to nominate yourself only if you are sure about making it to the event as there are heavy costs borne by IEEE on your behalf. Any cancellations should reach the meeting contact before registration deadline. A no show after that will automatically bar the member from registering for upcoming PES events of Y2012-13

  

Best,

Mithun Bhaskar

Secretary, IEEE PES/IAS/PELS

E-mail: mith...@ieee.org