Methods and apparatus to control zone temperatures of a solar cell production system
AssigneeIllinois Tool Works Inc.
InventorsDaniel M. Ruf, Roy Ball
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and apparatus to control zone temperatures in a solar cell production system are disclosed. An example furnace to fire photovoltaic cells includes: a plurality of zones comprising firing elements configured to fire a metallization layer of photovoltaic cells by heating the photovoltaic cells in the zones; one or more belts configured to transport photovoltaic cells through a sequence of the plurality of zones; a user interface comprising one or more input devices; and control circuitry configured to: control the firing elements for the plurality of zones; and modify a configuration of two or more of the plurality of zones based on input received via the input device.
Claims11
A furnace to fire photovoltaic cells, the furnace comprising:
- a plurality of zones comprising firing elements configured to fire a metallization layer of photovoltaic cells by heating the photovoltaic cells in the zones;
- one or more belts configured to transport photovoltaic cells through a sequence of the plurality of zones;
- a user interface comprising one or more input devices;
- and
- control circuitry configured to:
- control the firing elements for the plurality of zones;
- modify a configuration of two or more zones of the plurality of zones based on input received via the input device;
- receive a peak cell temperature via the one or more input devices;
- and
- modify the configuration of the two or more zones of the plurality of zones to achieve the peak cell temperature.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.