MORE | Fall 2018

Monolithic silicon module manufacturing

The research aim is to determine whether a conductive encapsulant can be used as a reliable interconnect between an Al foil electrode and the back contact of a solar cell module. This is of significance because this decreases costs of the encapsulant layer and reduced material usage. Bonding and adhesion between layers was investigated via Focused ion beam (FIB) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. Cross-sectional imaging indicates whether any voids or discontinuities are present between interfaces. If the encapsulant provides a robust connection between the two layers, this novel design has the potential to deployed on the terawatt scale.