Applied Materials, Inc. - Energy and Environment Glossary

A-RACK

Holds glass on both sides. A shape structure configuration.

ACCUM

Work in Progress (WIP) Buffer

Al/Ag

Aluminum and gold are used in solar cell production to conduct electricity and reflect light.

AMORPHOUS SEMICONDUCTOR

Is the non-crystalline semiconductor material that has no long-range order.
A non-crystalline semiconductor material, that is cheaper than crystalline, but less efficient and slowly degrades over time. Also known as thin film.

AMORPHOUS SILICON (a-Si)

Non-crystalline allotropic form of silicon in which the atoms are disordered from optimum crystalline positions. To compensate for the resulting “dangling bonds,” hydrogen is alloyed with silicon.

AUTOCLAVE

Pressurized device designed to heat aqueous solutions above their boiling point to achieve sterilization. Autoclaving is used to improve adhesiveness between the PVB and glass substrates by removing trapped air.

BACK CONTACT

ZnO:Al
- Zinc oxide and aluminum are used to prevent alloy formation between the silicon and metal layers.
Al/Ag
- Aluminum and gold are used in solar cell productions to conduct electricity and reflect light.

BACK GLASS

Ensures no gridlines or visible tabs are present on the front of the cells.
Creates a uniform appearance, unrestricted by reflectance.

BALANCE OF SYSTEM (BOS)

Mounting Structure
Cabling
Inverter
Land/Others
Maintenance

BUS

Bus Wire Attachment tool automatically installs the tabbing wire and the bus wire.

Cd-Te

Cadmium Telluride: a type of thin-film solar cell design that uses a cadmium-tellurium compound as the semiconductor layer.

CIS (CIGS)

Copper Indium Diselenide: a type of thin film solar cell material that uses a compound of copper, indium, selenium. A fourth element, gallium, may also be added to the compound (CIGS) to achieve higher performance in PV cells.

CELL

The solar cell is the basic electrical device in solar power. Multiple cells are wired together to form modules of the needed area.

CRYSTALLINE SILICON (c-Si)

A generic term for solar cell technology that uses a substrate of purified silicon in a crystalline structure.
Gray color and metallic luster increase with crystal size.
Has properties similar to glass in that it is strong, brittle, and has a tendency to chip.

CVD

Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition Tool (PECVD).
Substrates are exposed to one or more volatile precursors, which react and/or decompose on the substrate surface to produce the desired deposit.

CVD ABATEMENT

Tool used to abate toxic gases.

CVD PUMP

Tool used to pump process lines.

FAB300

MES (manufacturing execution system) software used to optimize factory performance.

Gigawatt: One thousand (1000) MW

GWp

Giga Watt peak (1,000 MWp); solar industry unit for normal power.

HS20

Cutting liquid (glycol based).

HSEM Hand Seam Inspection

Used to round the edges and corners of the glass to reduce damage and improve factory yields.

INVERTER

An inverter allows DC power from solar panels to supply AC power that is normally supplied from a main power source or grid electricity.

JBX

Junction box attachment tool installs the J-Box, solder J-Box leads, and J-Box lid used to attach PV-Instant Seal Bond line.

JUNCTION BOX

Used to protect soldered electrical connections between the output and cables.
Provide an output wiring for the solar module.

Kilogram

Kilometer

Kilowatt: 1,000 watts of electrical output.

Kerf Loss

Kerf loss is associated with the amount of material loss during a cutting process. In crystalline wafer production, kerf loss refers to the amount of silicon consumed as part of the wafering process and plays a vital role in determining the overall dimension, edge quality, and surface finish of a wafer.

LCD

Liquid Crystal Display.

LED

Light emitting diode.

LASER SCRIBE

Multiple lasers per system with indexing optics direct laser towards the glass at appropriate scribe separation.
- First Laser – removes selected semiconductor and metal electrode layers (TCO) from the substrate.
- Second Laser – etches a groove for the contact area for both the metal and transparent electrode (a-Si) layers.
- Third Laser – produces a contact area groove for both the metal and a-Si layers

Millimeter

mm²

Millimeter square

Megawatt: One million watts, or 1,000 KW.

MWp

Megawatt peak (1MWp=1,000 kilowatt peak); a measuring unit for norminal power output of solar cells in the solar industry.

MICRON

One-millionth of a meter, or 1,000 nanometers

MICRO-CRYSTALLINE

Is a crystallized substance or rock which contains small crystals that are visible through microscopic examination. i.e. Microcrystalline Silicon (µc-Si)

MICRO-CRYSTALLINE SILICON (µc-Si)

A form of thin film silicon with very small (0.5-2 micron) grain structure intermixed with amorphous silicon. It is usually deposited in a thin layer (typically 1-3 microns) for tandem (stacked) thin film solar cells.

MODULE

The solar module is the final packaged PV generator.

MONO-CRYSTALLINE SILICON

Crystalline silicon in which the wafer is cut from a single silicon crystal with a perfect crystalline lattice structure. Also used for Integrated Circuits.

MULTI-CRYSTALLINE SILICON

Crystalline Silicon in which the wafer is made from silicon that has been melted and cast into blocks, creating a structure of many large silicon crystal grains.

PECVD

Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition: a glow discharge based deposition technology used to form many kinds of coatings, including both a-Si (amorphous silicon) and SiN (silicon nitride) layers for solar cells.

PERCENT EFFICIENCY

% Efficiency = Electrical Energy / Sunlight Energy

PHOTOVOLTAIC (PV)

PV devices convert sunlight directly to electrical current
Relating to, or utilizing the generation of a voltage when radiant energy falls on the boundary between dissimilar substances (as two different semiconductors).

POLYVINYL BUTYRAL (PVB)

Shock-absorbing safety interlayer in safety glazing.
Safety glazing to provide features such as solar energy control, weight reduction by eliminating one glass layer (called a bi-layer structure), head-up displays in automobiles and liquid crystal and electro-chromic devices for privacy applications.

See Photovoltaic

PVD

Physical Vapor Deposition or "sputtering" is a process by which a thin film of material is deposited on a substrate according to the following sequence of steps:
1. Deposited material is converted into vapor by physical means.
2. Vapor is transported across a region of low pressure from its source to the substrate.
3. Vapor undergoes condensation on the substrate to form the thin film.
A type of deposition method in which atoms are detached from a target of a certain material and then deposited on a substrate.

Silicon

SRU

Slurry recovery unit

SINGLE-CRYSTAL SILICON

See mono-crystalline silicon

SINGLE JUNCTION

Single layer p-n junction diode (monocrystalline silicone c-Si)

SOLAR FARM

Solar power plants that generate electricity by converting solar energy to heat, to drive a thermal power plant.

SYSTEM COST

Module Cost + Balance of System

Tons

TANDEM JUNCTION

Amorphous silicon and crystalline combined in thin layers, creating a layered cell.
Tandem solar cells designs use multiple light absorbing/semiconducting materials to increase conversion efficiency.

TCO

Transparent Conducting Oxide: this is typically the top active layer in a solar cell and is often made of zinc oxide or tin oxide. It needs to be transparent to allow light transmission, but be electrically conducive.

THIN FILM

Are thin material layers ranging from fractions of a nanometer to several micrometer thick.

TRANSPARENT CONDUCTIVE OXIDE (TCO)

Typically the top active layer in a solar cell and is often made of zinc oxide or tin oxide. It is transparent to allow light transmission and be electrically conductive.
In general, TCO thin films are transparent electrodes either polycrystalline or amorphous, except for single crystals which are grown epitaxially and exhibit a resistivity in an order of 10-3 Ω cm or less with an average transmittance above 80% in the visible range.

µm

An abbreviated form of micrometer. A unit of length equal to one millionth of a meter.

Wire Saw

Slices mono and polycristalline bricks into wafers

ZnO:Al

Zinc oxide and aluminum are used to prevent alloy formation between silicon and metal layers.