摘要
Inline characterization for fabrication of silicon wafer PV （photovoltaic） devices may be used to optimize device efficiencies, reduce their performance variance, and their cost of production. In this article, the frozen in strain from a variety of extended defects in silicon is shown to effect the polarization of light transmitted through a silicon substrate due to the photo-elastic effect. Transmission polarimetry on pre-fabricated silicon substrates may be used for identification of extended defects in the materials using a polarization analysis instrument. Instrumentation is proposed for detection of defects in raw silicon wafers for applications like raw silicon wafer sorting, scanning silicon bricks, and inline inspection prior to solar cell metallization. Such analysis may assist with gettering of silicon solar cells, may be implemented in the sorting and rejection procedures in PV device fabrication, and in general shows advantages for detection of defects in silicon wafer solar cell materials and devices.
