2026-09-19T20:53:27Zhttps://dspace.mit.edu/server/oai/requestoai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/629942022-01-13T07:54:36Zcom_1721.1_7582com_1721.1_7581col_1721.1_131024
Emanuel Sachs.
Páez, Daýan
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
2011-05-23T17:58:49Z
2011-05-23T17:58:49Z
2008
2008
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/62994
720657674
Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2008.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
The active regions of a solar cell must be inoculated with wax, while leaving the metal fingers and bus bars bare, in preparation for the electroplating step of a new solar panel manufacturing process. Different methods to achieve the inoculation of the cell are discussed, along with their advantages and disadvantages. A proposed solution is presented, along with results from test runs. The methods use a new feature of solar cells-microscopic, light-trapping textures-to passively wick the liquid wax to the extents of the regions through capillarity. Using this self-aligning feature of the cell texture, a low-cost delivery device was designed to bring liquid wax beads to within close proximities of the surface, without requiring high-precision equipment. The prototype uses an array of pins of diameter 1 mm, each of which beads a repeatable amount of wax on its head (- 0.1 mg), to transport the liquid wax from reservoir to cell texture. No metal-to-wafer contact is done in the process. The design has been used as a basis to create a machine at the Photovoltaics Laboratory (PV Lab). Successful inoculation of monocrystalline solar cells has been achieved using the proposed method.
by Daýan Páez.
S.B.
29 p.
eng
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M.I.T. theses are protected by
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http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582
Mechanical Engineering.
Low-cost selective deposition of wax onto textured solar cells
Thesis
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<Abstract>The active regions of a solar cell must be inoculated with wax, while leaving the metal fingers and bus bars bare, in preparation for the electroplating step of a new solar panel manufacturing process. Different methods to achieve the inoculation of the cell are discussed, along with their advantages and disadvantages. A proposed solution is presented, along with results from test runs. The methods use a new feature of solar cells-microscopic, light-trapping textures-to passively wick the liquid wax to the extents of the regions through capillarity. Using this self-aligning feature of the cell texture, a low-cost delivery device was designed to bring liquid wax beads to within close proximities of the surface, without requiring high-precision equipment. The prototype uses an array of pins of diameter 1 mm, each of which beads a repeatable amount of wax on its head (- 0.1 mg), to transport the liquid wax from reservoir to cell texture. No metal-to-wafer contact is done in the process. The design has been used as a basis to create a machine at the Photovoltaics Laboratory (PV Lab). Successful inoculation of monocrystalline solar cells has been achieved using the proposed method.</Abstract>
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