Solar Cells

Solar cells, like computer chips, are fabricated from semiconductor materials and assembled with conductive metals to carry electrical current. Cerium Labs has leveraged its expertise in semiconductor characterization and processing to offer in-depth analysis of solar cell structures. A wide variety of analytical techniques can be applied to investigate material composition, cell assembly and contaminant identification.  Typical examples include:

Semiconductor Material Characterization
FTIR is used to measure the interstitial oxygen and substitutional carbon content of single crystal silicon and polysilicon substrates, while Dynamic and Quad SIMS provide depth profiles of doping elements (e.g., boron and phosphorus).

Solar Cell Assembly
Composition and texture of deposited metals (e.g., silver, copper, aluminum) are determined by spectroscopic techniques including Auger, SEM/EDX and XPS. TOF-SIMS is used to detect organic additives such as adhesion promoters.

Identification of Contaminants
Trace contaminants in raw materials are identified and measured by HR-ICPMS (metals) and IC (organic and inorganic acids). XPS provides chemical state information allowing identification of metal oxides.