A Comparative Study of Soldering Temperatures and Materials on the Reliability of Photovoltaic Modules

Abstract

To find out the important factors which decisively affect the soldering quality of photovoltaic modules, solar cells were soldered under different conditions (different temperatures, PbSn vs. SnAgCu solder, manual vs. semi-automatic). Experimental results show that the soldering quality of PbSn under 350°C in the semi-automatic soldering process was quite stable while the soldering quality of lead-free solder was generally unacceptable in the manual or semi-automatic process under different temperatures. This result indicates that the soldering process with lead-free solder still needs to be further improved. It was also found that most cracks were formed on the interface between the solder and the silver paste and then expanded outwards.