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Advanced Silicon Wafer-Based Solar Cells: Enhancing Efficiency, Yield, and Cost-Effectiveness
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Advanced Silicon Wafer-Based Solar Cells: Enhancing Efficiency, Yield, and Cost-Effectiveness

Explore how industry-level innovations in solar cell design and manufacturing—PERC, TOPCon, and HJT—can be optimized for performance, cost, and complexity in a real-world engineering context.

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Mondays
 at
7:00
P.M.
 ET /
4:00
P.M.
PT
8 weeks, 2-3 hours per week
Beginner
No experience required
No experience required
Some experience required
Degree and experience required

Description

Solar energy is a fast-growing sector that depends on ongoing improvements in solar cell efficiency and manufacturing performance. In this Build Project, you’ll step into the role of a process engineer exploring three leading solar cell technologies: PERC, TOPCon, and HJT. You’ll learn industry practices, process control and characterization method, and get exposure to improvements in process flow. You’ll be introduced to techniques used in modern solar manufacturing like lifetime testing (WCT-120), optical profiling, and others characterization tool. Guided by a professional in the field and with a real case study, you will be more familiar with troubleshooting process bottlenecks and improving solar cell performance—just like engineers do in leading solar manufacturing environments.

Session timeline

  • Applications open
    May 1, 2025
  • Application deadline
    June 10, 2025
  • Project start date
    Week of July 8, 2024
    Week of
    July 7, 2025
  • Project end date
    Week of

What you will learn

By the end of the project, you will be able to:

Explain how solar cells generate energy and compare three major cell technologies (PERC, TOPCon, HJT).

Understand the process differences for different solar cell technologies (PERC, TOPCon, HJT)

Process control methods used in the solar cell manufacturing industry to improve process stability.

Understand key process tools like the ellipsometer, reflectometer, WCT-120, and ECV profiling.

Apply engineering reasoning to propose ways to enhance solar cell yield and cost-effectiveness.

Project workshops

1
Project Introduction and Goals
2
Overview of Silicon-Based Solar Cell Technologies (PERC, HJT, TOPCon)
3
PERC process step and advantages
4
TOPCon & HJT process step and advantages
5
Process control, cell efficiency and yield improvements
6
Cost-Effectiveness Strategies
7
Process & Solar cell characterization
8
Finalize and Present Findings

Prerequisites

For you to be successful in this project, you will need:

Basic understanding of semiconductor concepts or materials (e.g., silicon, semiconductors)

Basic understanding and show interest in solar cell manufacturing process

Some manufacturing or industrial related experience (Example: quality checking, operating machines, SPC sampling, PM & etc.)

Simple exposure to process control related information

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