Michael An Frei

US Patent:

20090077805, Mar 26, 2009

Filed:

Aug 29, 2008

Appl. No.:

12/202199

Inventors:

Robert Z. BACHRACH - Burlingame CA, US
Soo Young Choi - Fremont CA, US
Nicholas G.J. De Vries - Alameda CA, US
Yacov Elgar - Sunnyvale CA, US
Eric A. Englhardt - Palo Alto CA, US
Michael R. Frei - Palo Alto CA, US
Charles Gay - Westlake Village CA, US
Parris Hawkins - Los Altos CA, US
Choi (Gene) Ho - Sunnyvale CA, US
James Craig Hunter - Los Gatos CA, US
Penchala N. Kankanala - Santa Clara CA, US
Liwei Li - Sunnyvale CA, US
Danny Cam Toan Lu - San Francisco CA, US
Fang Mei - Foster City CA, US
Stephen P. Murphy - Perrysburg OH, US
Srujal (Steve) Patel - San Jose CA, US
Matthew J.B. Saunders - Sunnyvale CA, US
Asaf Schlezinger - Sunnyvale CA, US
Shuran Sheng - Sunnyvale CA, US
Tzay-Fa (Jeff) Su - San Jose CA, US
Jeffrey S. Sullivan - Castro Valley CA, US
David Tanner - San Jose CA, US
Teresa Trowbridge - Los Altos CA, US
Brice Walker - Bautista CA, US
John M. White - Hayward CA, US
Tae K. Won - San Jose CA, US

International Classification:

H01L 31/18
H05K 13/00

US Classification:

29890033, 29729, 29738, 29742, 295921

Abstract:

The present invention generally relates to a system that can be used to form a photovoltaic device, or solar cell, using processing modules that are adapted to perform one or more steps in the solar cell formation process. The automated solar cell fab is generally an arrangement of automated processing modules and automation equipment that is used to form solar cell devices. The automated solar fab will thus generally comprise a substrate receiving module that is adapted to receive a substrate, one or more absorbing layer deposition cluster tools having at least one processing chamber that is adapted to deposit a silicon-containing layer on a surface of the substrate, one or more back contact deposition chambers, one or more material removal chambers, a solar cell encapsulation device, an autoclave module, an automated junction box attaching module, and one or more quality assurance modules that are adapted to test and qualify the completely formed solar cell device.