Thermal Residual Stress Analysis of Soldering and Lamination Processes for Fabrication of Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Modules

Hyunseong Shin, Ekyu Han, Nochang Park and Donghwan Kim
Additional contact information
Hyunseong Shin: School of Mechanical Engineering, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-Ro, Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk 38541, Korea
Ekyu Han: Electronic Convergence Materials & Device Research Center, Korea Electronics Technology Institute, 25 Saenari-ro, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do 463-816, Korea
Nochang Park: Electronic Convergence Materials & Device Research Center, Korea Electronics Technology Institute, 25 Saenari-ro, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do 463-816, Korea
Donghwan Kim: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea University, 145 Anam-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 02841, Korea

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 12, 1-10

Abstract: In this study, we developed a finite element model to assess the residual stress in the soldering and lamination processes during the fabrication of crystalline silicon (Si) photovoltaic (PV) modules. We found that Si wafers experience maximum thermo-mechanical stress during the soldering process. Then, the Si solar cells experience pressure during the process of lamination of each layer of the PV module. Thus, it is important to decrease the residual stress during soldering of thin Si wafers. The residual stress is affected by the number of busbars, Si wafer thickness, and solder type. Firstly, as the number of busbars increases from two to twelve, the maximum principal stress increases by almost a factor of three (~100 MPa). Such a high first principal stress can cause mechanical failure in some Si wafers. Secondly, thermal warpage increases immediately after the soldering process when the thickness of the Si wafers decreases. Therefore, the number and width of the busbars should be considered in order to avoid mechanical failure. Finally, the residual stress can be reduced by using low melting point solder. The results obtained in this study can be applied to avoid mechanical failure in PV modules employing thin Si wafers.

Keywords: silicon wafer; photovoltaic module; lamination; finite element model; thermal stress (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/12/3256/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/12/3256/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:11:y:2018:i:12:p:3256-:d:184857

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().