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Real-Time Fault Diagnosis of Sensors for Fault-Tolerant Control of Thin-Film CIGS Photovoltaics Process

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Bharat Joshi
Affiliation:
ITN Energy Systems Inc., 8130 Shaffer Parkway, Littleton, CO 80127
Markus E. Beck
Affiliation:
Global Solar Energy, Inc., 5575 S. Houghton Road, Tucson, AZ 85747
Jeffrey S. Britt
Affiliation:
Global Solar Energy, Inc., 5575 S. Houghton Road, Tucson, AZ 85747
Michael Chaffin
Affiliation:
ITN Energy Systems Inc., 8130 Shaffer Parkway, Littleton, CO 80127
Nicholas Gomez
Affiliation:
ITN Energy Systems Inc., 8130 Shaffer Parkway, Littleton, CO 80127
John Muha
Affiliation:
Global Solar Energy, Inc., 5575 S. Houghton Road, Tucson, AZ 85747
L.J. Simpson
Affiliation:
ITN Energy Systems Inc., 8130 Shaffer Parkway, Littleton, CO 80127
Scott Wiedeman
Affiliation:
Global Solar Energy, Inc., 5575 S. Houghton Road, Tucson, AZ 85747
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Abstract

ITN Energy Systems, Inc., (ITN) and Global Solar Energy, Inc., (GSE) have continued the advancement of copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) production technology through the development of a number of activities, including fault-tolerant control, in-situ sensors, and process improvements, with the goal of enabling uninterrupted continuous manufacturing of high quality CIGS materials that are very sensitive to processing conditions. In this paper real-time sensor fault detection and diagnosis strategies developed by ITN and GSE to enable fault-tolerant controllers for thin-film CIGS deposition process are presented. The results indicate that these strategies are very effective and they would play a major role in improving system reliability, thereby also improving yield, throughput, and efficiency. Sensing process reconfiguration methodologies that lead to fault-tolerant controllers also are briefly discussed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2003

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References

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