Degradation and Failure Mechanisms of PV Module Interconnects

Hu, Yang; French, Roger H.

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-811545-9.00005-7

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…The silicon wafer is usually coated with thin layers of materials, including metal contacts, antireflection coatings, and encapsulant materials. The coefficients of thermal expansion of these materials are different, which causes differential thermal expansion and contraction [46] during thermal cycling. If the thermal stress exceeds the strength of the silicon wafer, it can initiate cracks.…”

Section: Potential Reasons For Degradation In Gg Modulesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finger breakage is a failure mechanism that can occur in the silicon wafers of solar cells due to the differential thermal expansion between the metal fingers and the silicon wafer. During operation, the metal fingers that interconnect the cells and the silicon wafer expand and contract at different rates due to the differences in their coefficients of thermal expansion [46]. This differential thermal expansion can cause localized stress concentrations at the corners of the metal fingers, leading to the initiation of micro-cracks in the silicon wafer.…”

Section: Potential Reasons For Degradation In Gg Modulesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, Figure 7 (right) illustrates cell interconnect ribbon failure, which stems from thermally-induced strain [46] resulting from metal fatigue. Since the electrical current is only carried through one of these ribbons, one side of the cell is heated more intensely than the other, leading to a higher brightness, as evident in the EL image represented in Figure 7 (right).…”

Section: Potential Reasons For Degradation In Gg Modulesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since the electrical current is only carried through one of these ribbons, one side of the cell is heated more intensely than the other, leading to a higher brightness, as evident in the EL image represented in Figure 7 (right). A potential reason for the fatigue observed in the ribbons interconnecting the solar cells is the difference in the CTE of the solder-joints, which attaches the copperribbons with silicon-wafers [46]. The cyclic mechanical stress on the cell interconnection ribbons can potentially result in localized stress concentrations on the ribbon surface, leading to the formation of micro-cracks.…”

Section: Potential Reasons For Degradation In Gg Modulesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Comparative Analysis of Hotspot Stress Endurance in Pristine and Thermal Cycled Prestressed Glass–Glass Photovoltaic Modules

et al. 2023

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Hotspots pose a significant long-term reliability challenge in photovoltaic (PV) modules that can have a detrimental impact on the efficiency, safety, and financial viability of a PV system. This paper aims to evaluate the endurance of hotspot stress in pristine and prestressed glass–glass (GG) modules. The accelerated prestressing was conducted for 600 thermal cycles (TC600) to represent decades of field exposure. GG modules are quickly becoming an alternative to the traditional glass–backsheet (GB) modules that have been the industry standard. Unlike other conventional studies that subject only pristine modules to hotspot stress, this paper evaluates the performance of an accelerated/simulated field-aged GG module (using TC600) and a pristine GG module. Pre- and post-characterizations were performed before and after each test to determine changes in electrical performance and observe any defects in GG modules. During the hotspot test, an approximately 200 °C maximum cell temperature was observed with a cell shading of 25% (the worst-case shading ratio). After the hotspot test, electroluminescence imaging indicated that most cells in the prestressed GG module exhibited severe damage whereas no significant defects were evident in the pristine GG module where the prestressed GG module degraded 8.2% and the pristine GG module degraded 1.5% in maximum power. These findings are critical for the industry, considering that GG bifacial modules will dominate the market.

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Section: Potential Reasons For Degradation In Gg Modulesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Potential Reasons For Degradation In Gg Modulesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Potential Reasons For Degradation In Gg Modulesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Potential Reasons For Degradation In Gg Modulesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Comparative Analysis of Hotspot Stress Endurance in Pristine and Thermal Cycled Prestressed Glass–Glass Photovoltaic Modules

et al. 2023

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“…In flip chip technology, the reduction of solder joint size and exponential increase in bump numbers has led to shrinkage of the process window and contributed to the difficulty of highly reliable welding [13]. Therefore, recent years have seen many publications concerning the process [14,15], materials [2,3], mechanism [9,16], reliability [3,17,18], testing [13,19] and other aspects of interconnect technologies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improvement of PbSn Solder Reliability with Ge Microalloying-Induced Optimization of Intermetallic Compounds Growth

Qu,

Hao,

Chen

et al. 2024

Materials

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PbSn solders are used in semiconductor devices for aerospace or military purposes with high levels of reliability requirements. Microalloying has been widely adopted to improve the reliability for Pb-free solders, but its application in PbSn solders is scarce. In this article, the optimization of PbSn solder reliability with Ge microalloying was investigated using both experimental and calculation methods. Intermetallic compounds (IMC) growth and morphologies evolution during reliability tests were considered to be the main factors of device failure. Through first-principle calculation, the growth mechanism of interfacial Ni3Sn4 was discussed, including the formation of vacancies, the Ni-vacancies exchange diffusion and the dominant Ni diffusion along the [1 0 0] direction. The doping of Ge in the cell increased the exchange energy barrier and thus inhibited the IMC development and coarsening trend. In three reliability tests, only 0.013 wt% Ge microalloying in Pb60Sn40 was able to reduce IMC thickness by an increment of 22.6~38.7%. The proposed Ge microalloying method in traditional PbSn solder could yield a prospective candidate for highly reliable applications.

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Failure analysis in smart grid solar integration using an extended decision-making-based FMEA model under uncertain environment

Maghami,

Vahabzadeh,

Mutambara

et al. 2024

Stoch Environ Res Risk Assess

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Degradation and Failure Mechanisms of PV Module Interconnects

Cited by 8 publications

References 39 publications

Comparative Analysis of Hotspot Stress Endurance in Pristine and Thermal Cycled Prestressed Glass–Glass Photovoltaic Modules

Comparative Analysis of Hotspot Stress Endurance in Pristine and Thermal Cycled Prestressed Glass–Glass Photovoltaic Modules

Improvement of PbSn Solder Reliability with Ge Microalloying-Induced Optimization of Intermetallic Compounds Growth

Failure analysis in smart grid solar integration using an extended decision-making-based FMEA model under uncertain environment

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