First Generation Solar Cells

Elemental or crystalline silicon is the principal component of most semiconductor devices, most importantly integrated circuits or microchips. Silicon’s ability to remain a semiconductor at higher temperatures has made it a highly attractive raw material for solar panels. Silicon’s abundance, however, does not ease the challenges of harvesting and processing it into a usable material for 

microchips and silicon panels. At least three standard manufacturing processes mean that there are technical opportunities for assembly and packaging engineers; Phosphorus Diffusion, Silicon Wafer Metallization, and Solar Module Assembly.  We will discuss these three standard manufacturing processes over the course of the next few blog entries!