Systems and control challenges in photovoltaic manufacturing processes: A modeling strategy for passivation and antireflection films

A view of contemporary systems and control challenges in PV cell manufacturing is given in this paper, with emphasis on developing a modeling strategy for the optimization of thin-film silicon nitride SiNx:H films used for passivation and anti-reflection coatings in single (sc-) and multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) solar cells. The overall framework integrates three modeling modules: a remote plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (RPECVD) reactor process model that predicts film composition and thickness based on process input parameters, a solar-optical module that translates the film physical and chemical properties to PV cell photogenerated current, and a PV cell equivalent circuit device model that predicts cell power output and efficiency from the film properties and photocurrent. Because the model couples process inputs to both PV cell performance and manufacturing process efficiency, the modeling approach is ideal for optimizing process and product performance.