Assembly and mounting of solar cells on space panels

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9608156-B2
Application number	US-201514795461-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 9, 2015
Priority date	Jul 9, 2015
Publication date	Mar 28, 2017
Grant date	Mar 28, 2017

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a method of fabricating a solar cell panel in an automated process by applying an adhesive pattern to a support, positioning a solar cell assembly over the pattern, and applying pressure to adhere the assembly to the support.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of fabricating a solar cell array carrier comprising:
providing a support for mounting an array of solar cells;
providing a pattern of a plurality of discrete predefined adhesive regions on a top surface of the support;
positioning a single solar cell assembly of a plurality of solar cell assemblies over the top surface of each adhesive region;
bonding each solar cell assembly of the plurality of solar cell assemblies to each region by application of pressure; and
electrically connecting each solar cell assembly to an adjoining solar cell assembly subsequent to the bonding step to form at least a string of electrically interconnected solar cell assemblies,
wherein electrically connecting each solar cell assembly to an adjoining solar cell assembly comprises:
automatically positioning an interconnector using a pick and place process; and
welding the placed interconnector using automatic parallel gap welding.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein each predefined region contains a pressure sensitive adhesive.

3. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein each solar cell assembly is a CIC (Cover Glass-Interconnect-Solar Cell) assembly, and the solar cell in each assembly is a III-V compound semiconductor multijunction solar cell.

4. A method as defined in claim 3 , wherein each multijunction solar cell includes an upper first subcell composed of indium gallium phosphide; a second solar subcell is disposed adjacent to and lattice matched to said upper first subcell, the second solar subcell including an emitter layer composed of indium gallium phosphide, and a base layer composed of indium gallium arsenide that is lattice matched to the emitter layer; and a lower subcell that is lattice matched to said second subcell and is composed of germanium.

5. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein each adhesive region is in the shape of and congruent to the shape of the bottom surface of the solar cell assembly.

6. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein each adhesive region is between 0.001 and 0.010 inches in thickness.

7. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein each solar cell assembly is between 0.010 and 0.030 inches in thickness.

8. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the support is between 0.001 and 0.020 inches in thickness.

9. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the bottom surface of each solar cell assembly is composed of metal.

10. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the support is flexible and is composed of a poly (4,4′-oxydiphenylene-pyromellitimide) material.

11. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the positioning of each solar cell assembly is performed by a pick and place assembly tool.

12. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein each solar cell assembly comprises a square-shape solar cell having a dimension in a range of 0.5 to 10 mm on a side.

13. A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein adjacent solar cell assemblies bonded to each region are separated from one another by a distance of between 5 and 25 microns.

14. A method of fabricating a solar cell array carrier comprising:
providing an aluminum honeycomb support;
providing a plurality of carbon composite sheets embedded in a matrix of a cyanate ester adhesive to form a face sheet on the aluminum honeycomb support;
providing a double sided adhesive film and positioning it on a top surface of the face sheet;
bonding the bottom surface of the adhesive film to the top surface of the face sheet by co-curing;
sequentially positioning a sequence of solar cell assemblies over the top surface of the adhesive film using a pick and place assembly tool;
sequentially bonding each of the sequence of solar cell assemblies to a predefined region on the top surface of the face sheet; and
electrically connecting each solar cell assembly to an adjoining solar cell assembly subsequent to the bonding step to form at least a string of electrically interconnected solar cell assemblies,
wherein one or more method steps employ 3D imaging machine vision based on a grid array system using a pseudorandom structure light system, or based on laser triangulation to calculate a shape from a deviation of a line projected on an object.

15. A method as defined in claim 14 , wherein each solar cell assembly is a CIC (Cover Glass-Interconnect-Solar Cell) assembly, and the solar cell in each assembly is a III-V compound semiconductor multijunction solar cell.

16. A method as defined in claim 14 , wherein the predefined region is in the shape of and congruent to the shape of the bottom surface of the solar cell assembly.

17. A method as defined in claim 14 , wherein the sequence of solar cell assemblies are disposed on a release carrier, and each solar cell assembly is detached from the release carrier as the solar cell assembly is bonded to the respective predefined region.

18. A method as defined in claim 17 , wherein the release carrier is wound on a cassette spool.

19. A method of fabricating a solar cell array carrier comprising:
providing an aluminum honeycomb support;
providing a plurality of carbon composite sheets embedded in a matrix of a cyanate ester adhesive to form a face sheet on the aluminum honeycomb support;
providing a double sided adhesive film and positioning it on a the top surface of the face sheet:
bonding the bottom surface of the adhesive film to the top surface of the face sheet by co-curing;
sequentially positioning a sequence of solar cell assemblies over the top surface of the adhesive film using a pick and place assembly tool;
sequentially bonding each of the sequence of solar cell assemblies to a predefined region on the top surface of the face sheet; and
electrically connecting each solar cell assembly to an adjoining solar cell assembly subsequent to the bonding step to form at least a string of electrically interconnected solar cell assemblies, wherein electrically connecting each solar cell assembly to an adjoining solar cell assembly comprises:
automatically positioning an interconnector using a pick and place process; and
welding the placed interconnector using automatic parallel gap welding.

20. A method of fabricating a solar cell array carrier comprising:
providing a support for mounting an array of solar cells;
providing a pattern of a plurality of discrete predefined adhesive regions on a the top surface of the support;
positioning a single solar cell assembly of a plurality of solar cell assemblies over the top surface of each adhesive region;
bonding each solar cell assembly of the plurality of solar cell assemblies to each region by application of pressure; and
electrically connecting each solar cell assembly to an adjoining solar cell assembly subsequent to the bonding step to form at least a string of electrically interconnected solar cell assemblies,
wherein the method further comprises preparing each solar cell assembly of the plurality of solar cell assemblies by a method comprising:
providing a plurality of solar cells;
dispensing a silicone adhesive on each solar cell of the plurality of solar cells using an automated machine employing visual recognition;
picking a coverglass from a cartridge stack and placing the coverglass on the uncured silicone adhesive on each solar cell using a numerically controlled component placement machine using computerized visual recognition of fiducial location points; and
curing the silicone adhesive to form each CIC (Cover Glass-Interconnect-Solar Cell) assembly.

21. A method of fabr

Assignees

• Solaero Tech Corp
• Solacro Tech Corp

Inventors

• Clevenger Marvin B
• Richards Benjamin C
• Tourino Cory

Classifications

• H01L31/03046

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/074

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/18

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/0735

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L31/0725 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic