Industrial + Specialty Printing

Supporting the manufacturing requirements of the solar industry

By Dongkai Shangguan

Solar energy is a clean, renewable source that reduces the carbon footprint, slows down global warming, and fuels sustainable growth. The abundance and global availability of solar energy make it attractive, and it can be harvested regardless of geography, season, or economic condition.

Solar photovoltaics (PV) represents the process of converting solar energy into electricity by converting photons into electrons, through a semiconductor material, thereby producing an electrical current that can power an external load. Solar cells assembled into solar modules make the process possible. The efficiency of energy conversion depends on several factors, including the spectral content of the direct light, the materials properties and device structure of the semiconductor, and the design, quality, and reliability of the PV cell and module.

Several types of semiconductor materials are used for solar PV: multi/monocrystalline silicon, amorphous thin-film silicon, multi-junction devices that use silicon and other semiconductor materials (in crystalline, microcrystalline, and/or amorphous forms), as well as other non-silicon-based semiconductor materials (mostly in thin-film). To construct a crystalline-silicon solar-PV module, for example, the semiconductor device must first be created, which is then transformed into a cell with electrodes and a conductor structure. Cells are then interconnected electrically, laminated with glass and assembled into a module, to which frames, junction boxes, and other balance-of-system (BOS) components are added, ready to be shipped and installed.

Over the past few years, Flextronics has had commercial activities in several important areas of the solar PV industry and has an established and dedicated Clean Tech division within its Industrial Market Segment that manufactures core equipment for thin-film amorphous-silicon solar-PV production for leading OEMs. Additionally, Multek, a wholly owned subsidiary of Flextronics, offers materials, flexible circuits, and PCBs for solar-PV modules. Flextronics has also developed its capability for turnkey assembly of solar-PV modules in Asia. Power inverters are yet another company offering, along with mechanical parts and other BOS components.

Flextronics leverages its experience and capabilities to design, build, ship, and service products that create value and drive differentiation. It helps OEM customers optimize module design for quality, manufacturability, and reliability. Expertise in advanced packaging and thermal management helps customers optimize the design in concentrated solar PV systems. Know-how in power systems enables us to design and assemble complex and efficient power-inverter systems (including micro-inverters).

By clearly understanding the quality and reliability requirements and making proactive preparations, the team works closely with industry-certification agencies to help customers reduce the time-to-market for new products. Knowledge in advanced materials and system reliability is a critical element in ensuring the long-term reliability of the solar panels in the field. In volume manufacturing, experience in lean manufacturing to optimize the supply chain, line layout, and productivity helps improve quality and reduce cost. Flextronics deploys optimized processes, quality control, and test methodologies to assure quality and reliability in high-volume production. Working with supply-chain partners helps optimize total solutions for OEM customers.

We are committed to intensifying efforts to create value that increases customer competitiveness in the solar PV industry, by improving quality, reducing cost, and ensuring reliability of solar PV products, thereby accelerating the adoption of solar energy worldwide. This effort is supported by offerings in adjacent areas, such as smart meters and energy efficient appliances, power supplies, and computers. Moving forward, the company will continue to expand its capabilities and offerings in renewable, clean energy (including wind and fuel cells), to support sustainable development, to enable and deploy environmentally friendly design and manufacturing worldwide, and to help safeguard and sustain a clean environment for the future.

Dongkai Shangguan, Ph.D.
Dongkai Shangguan, Ph.D., an IEEE Fellow, is vice president of technology and engineering at Singapore-based Flextronics. The company is a provider of electronics-manufacturing services and focuses on delivering complete design, engineering, and manufacturing services to automotive, computing, consumer, industrial, infrastructure, medical, and mobile OEMs. For more information, visit www.flextronics.com.