Tau Science, a provider of diagnostic systems to the photovoltaic industry, has introduced IRIS, an in-line screening tool capable of identifying solar cells with shunt defects (hot spots).
According to the company, the tool allows customers to increase revenue and profit by discerning between cells that are safe for assembly into modules and electrically similar cells that will overheat and degrade in the field. IRIS is designed for integration into the cell manufacturing line. A stand-alone version is also available.
The IRIS system integrates a deep infrared camera and proprietary image processing algorithms to assess the shunt characteristics of the cell under reverse bias conditions. The analysis is controlled through a user-configurable recipe with control limits that disposition the cell into"pass," "fail," and"marginal," bins in one to two seconds. The results of this fast, in-line measurement have been shown to correlate well with conventional lengthy cell overheating measurements, Tau Science says.
SOURCE: Tau Science
