On the characterisation of industrial PV manufacturing lines with respect to silicon fracturing

Silicon is brittle and fragile but also expensive. Because many steps in indust rial PV production processes involve mechanical or thermal stresses, fracturing can be initiated during manufacturing which results in substantial economic loss es. A reduction of breakage in a production line requires a characterisation of the whole processing chain with regard to its fracture mechanical behaviour. In this work the mechanical aspects of PV manufacturing processes are investigated on the basis of fracture mechanics for brittle materials. Silicon is considered as a structural material, without taking into account its electrical properties. From such fracture mechanical analyses measures for breakage loss reduction cou ld successfully be derived. This is demonstrated by examples from the practice i n industrial manufacturing lines.