Due to the delicate processing and the associated costs, in-line quality control is of high importance. ![]() The actual production process of such thin-film modules is a multistep process comprising, amongst others, co-evaporation techniques, chemical bath processing, sputtering, structuring processes, and glass-to-glass lamination. However, there are still challenges related to their fabrication, such as high processing costs and moderate reproducibility and throughput, which decelerate the further commercialisation and wide market penetration of CIGS technologies. In general, thin-film solar cells have many advantageous attributes, such as easy installation, high product flexibility, light weight, and lower labour-intensiveness compared to silicon solar cells. Amongst others, copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar cells have become an increasingly relevant technology as efficiencies of up to 23.35% were reported in the literature. While PV plants employing silicon solar cells have established themselves as an important element in the global energy mix, thin-film processed PV cells have also become progressively important for the renewable energy market, as indicated by an expected continuous annual growth rate of over 19% by 2023. Renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) technologies will be a main driver towards the targeted climate neutrality. Therefore, the European green deal was established with the pronounced goal to no longer emit any net greenhouse gases by 2050. In the European Union, more than 75% of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the generation and consumption of energy. Using the red excitation light source, the presented PL imaging and data processing approach allows for a quantitative assessment of the cell performance. The data analysis was fully automated using Python-based image processing, object detection, and non-linear regression modelling. Performance parameters of 10 CIGS samples with 32 individually contacted cells each were correlated with results from PL imaging using green and red excitation light sources. As part of this work, a practical approach towards industrial in-line photoluminescence (PL) imaging as a contact-free quality inspection tool is presented. ![]() ![]() Therefore, cost-efficient and easily implementable in-line process control methods are demanded that allow for identification and elimination of non-conformal cells at an early production step. Nonetheless, challenges regarding the CIGS fabrication process such as moderate reproducibility and process tolerance are still hindering a broad market penetration. Thin-film PVs, and particularly copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) technologies, will play a crucial role in the turnaround in energy policy due to their high efficiencies, high product flexibility, light weight, easy installation, lower labour-intensiveness, and lower carbon footprint when compared to silicon solar cells. Renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) technologies are considered to be key drivers towards climate neutrality.
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