Project Title: Brittle Fracture Wafering of Silicon Ingots for Low-Cost, High-Efficiency c-Si Solar Cells
Funding Opportunity: Technology to Market 3
Solar Subprogram: Technology to Market
Location: San Mateo, CA
Amount Awarded: $1,341,611
Awardee Cost Share: $268,323
This project is developing a prototype for new solar wafer manufacturing technologies with the goal of significantly reducing the cost of materials for existing crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cell architectures. Streamlining the wafer fabrication process through more efficient and automated production line tools will eliminate silicon waste while reducing both process and operational complexity.
Approach
A number of proprietary improvements to key tools on a solar wafer production line will be developed and prototyped to demonstrate and optimize their performance. A pilot production system based on existing Halo Industries prototype systems will be designed, built, tested, and validated as an initial proof of the commercial viability of the technology. Detailed cost of ownership models will be developed to verify and quantify the operational efficiencies associated with the novel hardware prior to pilot system deployment.
Innovation
This project takes a proprietary, technical approach based on many years of research and development focused on investigating new methods of improving existing solar wafer manufacturing processes. Research-grade prototypes have demonstrated cost reductions of at least 14% for silicon solar cell materials, as well as drastically improved operational efficiencies for the majority of solar wafer fabrication steps. These types of fundamental manufacturing improvements are critical in enabling the direct competition of solar with all other forms of electricity generation.