CRAIC
Technologies, the leading manufacturer of UV-visible-NIR microscopes and
microspectrometers, is pleased to announce the 20/20 Solar
microspectrophotometer. The 20/20 Solar instrument is designed to measure the
thickness of thin films as well as the optical efficiencies and clarity of
photovoltaic cells. This can be done by both transmission and reflectance
whether the solar cells are the traditional crystalline silicon substrates or
one of the thin film varieties. Even protective glasses and concentrator modules
can be analyzed for their efficiency.
This powerful tool also has a host of other functions. It can be combined
with CRAIC Technologies proprietary contamination imaging capabilities to locate
and identify process contaminants. As such, the 20/20 Solar represents a major
step forward in metrology instrumentation available to the photovoltaic
industry.
"Many of our customers want to test the quality of photovoltaic devices for
rapid quality control of their products. The 20/20 Solar microspectrophotometer
was built in response to customer requests for a powerful, flexible metrology
tool that can test a number of different aspects of many different photovoltaic
devices" says Dr. Paul Martin, President. "This powerful tool is also
multifunctional in that it can be configured to measure thin film thickness,
analyze optical efficiencies and spectral characteristics of solar cells and
their components, for locating and identifying contaminants in the production
process and far more."
The complete 20/20 Solar solution combines advanced microspectroscopy with
sophisticated software to enable the user to measure transmissivity,
reflectivity, and luminescence. It will also be able to determine the thin film
thickness by either transmission or reflectance of many types of materials and
substrates. It can be used to measure the transmissivity and reflectivity from
many of the components used to manufacture PV cells such as concentrators. Due
to the flexibility of the CRAIC Technologies design, sampling areas can range
from over 100 microns across to less than a micron. Designed for the production
environment, it incorporates a number of easily modified metrology recipes, the
ability to measure new films and materials as well as sophisticated tools for
analyzing data as well as options for automation including touchscreen control.
Other features such as contamination analysis are easily added to this
instrument.