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US 8,006,566 B2Granted
Screening of silicon wafers used in photovoltaics
AssigneeAlliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC
InventorsBhushan L. Sopori, Peter Sheldon
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Abstract
A method for screening silicon-based wafers used in the photovoltaic industry is provided herewith.
Claims23
A method of screening a wafer, which comprises:
- presenting a plurality of wafers for illumination, wherein the plurality of wafers contain a first set of wafers that are suitable for use in subsequent deposition steps and a second set of wafers that are unsuited for use in subsequent deposition steps by virtue of cracking;
- illuminating the plurality of wafers with a light source that imparts a predetermined thermal stress to the plurality of wafers such that the wafers in the second set of wafers incur substantial breakage determined as a percentage of broken wafers in the second set of wafers and the wafers in the first set of wafers do not incur substantial breakage determined as a percentage broken wafers in the second set of wafers;
- and
- as a result of the illuminating step, selectively breaking the wafers of the second set of wafers.
1 more element
A system for screening a wafer, which comprises:
- means for presenting a plurality of wafers for illumination, wherein the plurality of wafers contain a first set of wafers that are suitable for use in subsequent deposition steps and a second set of wafers that are unsuited for use in subsequent deposition steps by virtue of cracking;
- and
- means for illuminating the plurality of wafers with a light source that imparts a predetermined thermal stress to the plurality of wafers such that that wafers in the second set of wafers incur substantial breakage determined as a percentage of broken wafers in the second set of wafers of the and wafers in the first set of wafers do not incur substantial breakage determined as a percentage of broken wafers in the second set of wafers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.