DLIP Revolution

Motivation

Contamination leads to a drop in performance of photovoltaic (PV) modules of up to 80% in the first few months after installation. With the help of Direct Laser Interference Patterning (DLIP), periodic (sub-)micrometer structures can be produced on the cover glasses, which ensure waterless cleaning and improved light yield of PV modules. Decisive for the functionality of the surfaces are the depth, periodicity and homogeneity of the structures produced. 

Particularly in industrial, large-scale DLIP production, there are significant deviations from the target structure parameters, which can lead to considerable quality impairments. While industrial processing speeds of 1 m²/min are already achieved for DLIP production, the structures can only be measured at up to 0.006 m²/min today. Today's measuring systems are more than two orders of magnitude too slow for real-time quality control and are therefore completely unsuitable for process control.

Aims and Procedure 

As part of DLIP Revolution, an optical measuring system is being developed for the inline characterization of DLIP surfaces that can keep pace with the processing speed of interference structuring of 1 m²/min. This means that rejects can be detected at an early stage and the structuring process can be control in real time.
 

Innovations and Prospects

In DLIP Revolution, a supercontinuum laser provides ultra-fast measurement technology that is integrated directly into a DLIP module and records all deterministic structural parameters. The supercontinuum laser is optimized for pulse energy and, in conjunction with a high-speed camera, can measure the structure parameters with a temporal resolution of > 10 kHz. By adapting the algorithms active intervention in the structuring process will be possible in the future.