How Matrix Solar panels are manufactured
The silicon is placed in a crucible and heated to 1430C. After it has melted, the bottom of the crucible is cooled. Solidification is oriented, from the bottom to the top, to result in a large-grain multi-crystalline columnar structure. The ingot from the furnace is then cut into bricks of the required cross section.The bricks are mounted on glass and sent into wire saws: a coil of wire continuously coated with an abrasive slurry, eats through the brick, slicing it into square wafers approximately 0.2 mm thick. Sodium etching is the next stage, where the wafers' texture is modified to increase the energy conversion efficiency of the surface.
Once the p-n junction has been formed, an anti-reflective coating is deposited to optimize absorption of the light. The electrodes required to collect the current are screenprinted with conductive paste on both sides of the cell.
Then comes firing, tab welding and sorting into energy conversion efficiency classes, before the cells are assembled in strings and connected together. The strings are placed between sheets of encapsulant, and then between two sheets of chemically tempered glass with a high transmission factor. The assembled modules are laminated, inspected and tested.