Mapping Of Measurement Data To Production Tool Location And Batch Or Time Of Processing

A system for quality monitoring during production of silicon cells for use in photovoltaic products, the system comprising:

• a wafer measurement module configured to measure characteristics of silicon wafers following production operations, said production operations including treatment by a production tool;
• a wafer tracking module configured to determine a spatial order, temporal order, or both spatial order and temporal order of the silicon wafers within the production tool during treatment;
• and
• an operator interface module configured to provide a graphical display of information based on the measured characteristics of the silicon wafers, said information spatially arranged on the graphical display according to the spatial order, temporal order, or both spatial order and temporal order.

A method for quality monitoring during production of silicon cells for use in photovoltaic products, the method comprising:

• measuring parameters of silicon wafers following production operations, said production operations including treatment by a production tool;
• correlating the measured parameters of each of the silicon wafers with a time of treatment by the production tool, a corresponding location of each of the silicon wafers within the production tool during treatment, or a combination thereof;
• correlating the measured parameters of each of the silicon wafers with aspects of the production operations, said aspects including one or both of processing time and processing location within the production tool, thereby determining operating characteristics of the production tool;
• and
• displaying the determined operating characteristics of the production tool for use in quality monitoring.

A system for quality monitoring during production of silicon cells for use in photovoltaic products, the system comprising:

• a wafer measurement module configured to measure parameters of silicon wafers following production operations, said production operations including treatment by a production tool;
• a wafer tracking module configured to correlate said parameters of each of the silicon wafers with a time of treatment by the production tool, a corresponding location of each of the silicon wafers within the production tool during treatment, or a combination thereof;
• a production performance monitoring module configured to correlate the measured parameters of each of the silicon wafers with aspects of the production operations, said aspects including one or both of processing time and processing location within the production tool, thereby determining operating characteristics of the production tool;
• and
• an operator interface module configured to display the determined operating characteristics of the production tool for use in quality monitoring.