| The performance of industrial solar cells is seriously affected by edge shunts. In the fabrication procedure, edge shunts are eliminated through edge isolation. Although many edge isolation techniques have been developed, these techniques have the disadvantages of high cost, complex processes and using undesired chemicals. A simple and low-cost technique for edge isolation is presented in this thesis. In this technique, edge isolation is achieved through coating the cell edges. The three main issues in this technique are discussed in this thesis. These issues are the selection of solvents, the selection of coating materials and the method to implement edge coating. Both the selection of solvents and the selection of coating materials were based on the experimental results of their effects on the edge coating quality and the solar cell performance. An edge coating method using a specially designed apparatus is proposed. |
