Temperature measurement for solar industry

The Ircon line of infrared sensors, linescanners and process imaging systems is designed for temperature monitoring applications in the solar manufacturing industry.

Ircon infrared thermometers provide an effective solution for online process monitoring, where measuring and controlling temperature is critical to productivity and product quality. Solar applications range from silicon and wafer production, to photovoltaic cell and module manufacturing.

In polysilicon production, for example, the Ircon IR solution is good for noncontact temperature measurement in CVD reactor environments. The Modline 5, 5R two-colour ratio thermometers are insensitive to sight path obstructions, including deposits on reactor windows and cloudy process conditions inside the reactor. Employing variable focus, high-resolution optics, they allow users to properly target small diameter polysilicon rods.

The high-performance Modline 5, 5R thermometers offer critical features for single crystal silicon production. These short wavelength, single-colour and two-colour ratio thermometers include variable focus, high-resolution optics and provide a very small measurement spot size at the silicon liquid/solid interface. This is necessary for controlling the crystal pulling process

During thin film deposition/lamination, improper process temperatures can lead to voids or delaminations, and poor PV module performance and failure. In this application, the GS150 Process Imaging System with complete image capture and analysis software provides a 3-5 µm spectral response - allowing the linescanner to accurately measure the process temperature of the underlying film.

In addition, the Maxline 2 Thermal Imaging System with image analysis software enables users to identify bad cell interconnects in thin film silicon PV modules. Defects in the cell interconnection can be readily identified by a precise thermal signature.