The Optimimum Gel Content Characteristics for Cell Cracks Prevention in PV Module

PV모듈의 cell crack 방지를 위한 EVA Sheet의 최적 Gel content 특성

To survive in outdoor environments, photovoltaic modules rely on packaging materials to provide requisite durability. We analyzed the properties of encapsulant materials that are important for photovoltaic module packaging. Recently, the thickness of solar cell gets thinner to reduce the quantity of silicon. And the reduced thickness make it easy to be broken while PV module fabrication process. Solar cell's micro cracks are increasing the breakage risk over the whole value chain from the wafer to the finished module, because the wafer or cell is exposed to tensile stress during handling and processing. This phenomenon might make PV module's maximum power and durability down. So, when using thin solar cell for PV module fabrication, it is needed to optimize the material and fabrication condition which is quite different from normal thick solar cell process. Normally, gel-content of EVA sheet should be higher than 80% so PV module has long term durability. But high gel-content characteristic might cause micro-crack on solar cell. In this experiment, we fabricated several specimen by varying curing temperature and time condition. And from the gel-content measurement, we figure the best fabrication condition. Also we examine the crack generation phenomenon during experiment.