Tracing method applied to carrier compensation between solar cell preparation processes

Abstract

The present invention relates to the technical field of solar cell preparation, in particular to a tracing method applied to carrier compensation between solar cell preparation processes,. The method comprises the following steps: an AGV transporting carriers filled with silicon wafers; a loading machine loading the carriers to devices one by one, reading carrier serial numbers, device serial numbers, and loading port serial numbers, and generating virtual serial numbers, wherein the virtual serial numbers are sequence codes generated by the loading machine on the basis of the sequence of the loaded carriers; if the loading machine successfully reads the carrier serial numbers, updating the read record in a database of a system, and if the loading machine fails to read the carrier serial numbers, the system calling carrier serial numbers, which are previously stored in the database and correspond to the carriers, from the database on the basis of the virtual serial numbers of the carriers, and updating related information of the carriers in the database of the system. The present invention improves the production efficiency, reduces the device development complexity, improves the single-chip tracing accuracy, and can be quickly put into use.

Description

Tracing method for carrier compensation between solar cell manufacturing processes Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of solar cell preparation, and in particular to a tracing method for carrier compensation between solar cell preparation processes. Background Art

[0002] In the solar cell production process, single-wafer traceability has always been a major problem plaguing solar cell factory data analysis. However, the solar cell production process may not be able to etch a unique code on the product like semiconductors and liquid crystal panels. There is no unique identification on the silicon wafer. During production, silicon wafers are circulated through carriers (flower baskets). Therefore, single-wafer traceability mainly relies on tracing the carrier, and the carrier's unique identification is identified by RFID. Wireless radio frequency identification, also known as radio frequency identification technology, is a type of automatic identification technology. It uses wireless radio frequency to conduct non-contact two-way data communication and uses wireless radio frequency to read and write recording media (electronic tags or radio frequency cards) to achieve the purpose of target identification and data exchange.

[0003] The existing traceability method is to read the carrier ID through the device's RFID reader. When the device reads successfully, it reports the carrier ID. When the device fails to read, the device will report a null value or a random code. This will cause the system to be unable to find the corresponding carrier information and silicon wafer information in the database. At this time, the system will re-establish the account, and ultimately the production process of the silicon wafer will be unable to be traced.

[0004] During the solar cell production process, the texturing and alkaline polishing processes require the carrier to be immersed in strong acid or alkali, thus placing extremely strict demands on the carrier's sealing. If strong acid or alkaline solutions come into contact with the RFID during production, the RFID reader will be unable to read it, significantly affecting the accuracy of single-wafer traceability and making it impossible to match the silicon wafer information in the carrier. The carrier's unique ID depends entirely on the device's read rate. When a read failure occurs, some devices will reread the device three times, while others will directly alarm and require human intervention, seriously affecting production time.

[0005] Summary of the Invention

[0006] The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a tracing method for carrier compensation between solar cell preparation processes, which reduces the development complexity of the equipment, improves the accuracy of single-chip tracing, can be quickly put into use, and improves production efficiency when the chip damage of the carrier causes single-chip tracing abnormality.

[0007] To solve the above technical problems, the technical solution of the present invention is: a tracing method for carrier compensation between solar cell manufacturing processes, comprising the following steps:

[0008] Step 1: The AGV transports a carrier full of silicon wafers.

[0009] Step 2: The loader loads the carriers onto the equipment one by one. The loader reads the carrier number, equipment number, and loading port number and generates a virtual number. The virtual number is a sequence code generated by the loader according to the order of the loaded carriers.

[0010] Step 3: If the loader successfully reads the carrier number, the read record will be updated in the system database. If the loader fails to read the carrier number, the system will retrieve the carrier number previously stored in the database according to the carrier's virtual number and update the relevant information of the carrier in the system database.

[0011] Step 4: Continue the operation of step 3. The loader reads the carrier number of each carrier and transports the carriers to the equipment in order for processing. According to the production mode of the equipment, the system calculates the position of each carrier in the equipment;

[0012] Step 5: After processing is completed, the unloader takes the carriers out of the equipment one by one and places them in the buffer area according to the previous loading order. The unloader's robotic arm takes the carriers out of the equipment and places them in the buffer area. The order in which the unloader unloads the carriers is the same as the order in which the loader loaded the carriers.

[0013] Step 6: The blanking machine reads the carrier number, equipment number, and blanking port number, and generates a virtual number. If the blanking machine successfully reads the carrier number, the reading record is updated in the system database. If the blanking machine fails to read the carrier number, the system will retrieve the carrier number previously stored in the database based on the carrier's virtual number, blanking port number, and equipment number, and update the carrier's related information in the system database.

[0014] Step seven: Continue to repeat the operation of step six until the buffer area of ​​the unloader meets the AGV's transportation requirements. The AGV will transport the carrier to the next process. After unloading, the AGV will transport the empty carrier to the front end of the loader to start the next carrier turnover cycle.

[0015] As a preferred technical solution, in step one, when the cumulative number of carriers reaches ten, the AGV meets the transportation requirements. The AGV is an automatic tracking vehicle that can transfer the ten carriers in sequence between the processes.

[0016] As a preferred technical solution, in step four, the equipment has a unique production mode, such as processing four carriers together or processing six carriers together. According to the different processing modes of the equipment, the system calculates the position of this carrier in the equipment, and the position corresponds one-to-one to the carrier number and the virtual number.

[0017] As a preferred technical solution, the virtual number is counted by a sensor and can record data very accurately. When the carrier number cannot be read, the corresponding carrier number and silicon wafer information can be matched through the virtual number.

[0018] As a preferred technical solution, the carrier number is read using RFID, and the carrier is a flower basket.

[0019] Due to the adoption of the above technical solution, the beneficial effects of the present invention are as follows: the present invention mainly solves the problem that when the chip of the carrier (taking a flower basket as an example) loaded with solar cells is damaged, the RFID reader cannot read normally, and the single-chip traceability is abnormal. By generating a virtual number synchronized with the carrier, it corresponds to the carrier number, equipment number, loading port number and unloading port number. The virtual number is sorted according to the loading and unloading order of the carrier, and recorded by a sensor. The corresponding carrier number is quickly found from the database through the virtual number. Compared with the previous situation where the device rereads three times when the reading fails, or even directly alarms and requires human intervention, the production efficiency is greatly improved, the development complexity of the equipment is reduced, the accuracy of single-chip traceability is improved, and it can be quickly put into use. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0020] The present invention will be further described below with reference to the following examples. In the following detailed description, certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described by way of illustration only. It is understood that those skilled in the art will recognize that the described embodiments may be modified in various ways without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the description is illustrative in nature and is not intended to limit the scope of the claims.

[0021] Example 1: The present invention is applied to the traceability of single wafers in the carrier flow between the texturing process and the diffusion process:

[0022] First, the flow between the traditional texturing process and the diffusion process is as follows:

[0023] (1) The carrier is filled with the raw silicon wafers to be processed, and the loader reports that the carrier is full and reports the carrier number to the system;

[0024] (2) The loader sends the carrier into the texturing equipment for processing;

[0025] (3) After the texturing equipment is finished, the blanking machine takes the carrier out of the texturing equipment;

[0026] (4) The unloading machine sends the carrier to the buffer area of ​​the unloading port and informs the system of the carrier number;

[0027] (5) When the number of carriers in the buffer area of ​​the unloader meets the AGV's transport quantity, report the carrier number and the order of equipment output;

[0028] (6) System records data;

[0029] (7) The diffusion process loader reads the carrier ID;

[0030] (8) If the carrier ID is read successfully, the corresponding silicon wafer information will be sent;

[0031] (9) If the reading fails and the silicon wafer information cannot be found, the system will regenerate the silicon wafer information and send it down. At this time, the production record of the metallization will not be found.

[0032] The present invention is applied to the single-chip carrier flow tracing method between the texturing process and the diffusion process as follows:

[0033] Step 1: The AGV transports a carrier full of silicon wafers. Since texturing is the first step, the carrier is filled with unprocessed silicon wafers.

[0034] Step 2: The loader loads the carriers one by one onto the texturing equipment. The loader reads the carrier number, equipment number, and loading port number, and generates a virtual number. The virtual number is a sequence code generated by the loader according to the order of the loaded carriers. Since there are multiple texturing equipment, each with more than one loading port, the loader needs to update the equipment number and loading port number to match the carrier number. The virtual number is the order of the loaded carriers, which is consistent with the transportation order of the empty carriers returned from the diffusion equipment.

[0035] Step 3: If the loader successfully reads the carrier number, the read record will be updated in the system database. If the loader fails to read the carrier number, the system will retrieve the carrier number corresponding to the carrier previously stored in the database according to the carrier's virtual number, and update the relevant information of the carrier in the system database. The existence of the virtual number is to assist in the identification and matching of the carrier number. Since the loading order and the unloading order are consistent, the virtual number and the carrier number are one-to-one corresponding. Even if the carrier number cannot be identified, the corresponding virtual number still exists, so the carrier information can be matched from the database.

[0036] Step 4: Continue the operation of step 3. The loader reads the carrier number of each carrier and transports the carriers to the texturing equipment in order for processing. According to the production mode of the texturing equipment, the system calculates the position of each carrier in the texturing equipment.

[0037] Step 5: After the texturing process is completed, the blanking machine takes the carriers out of the texturing equipment one by one according to the previous loading order and puts them into the buffer area. The mechanical arm of the blanking machine takes the carriers out of the texturing equipment and puts them into the buffer area of ​​the blanking machine. The order of the carriers unloaded by the blanking machine is the same as the order of the carriers loaded by the loader.

[0038] Step 6: The blanking machine reads the carrier number, equipment number, and blanking port number, and generates a virtual number. If the blanking machine successfully reads the carrier number, the reading record is updated in the system database. If the blanking machine fails to read the carrier number, the system will retrieve the carrier number previously stored in the database based on the carrier's virtual number, blanking port number, and equipment number, and update the carrier's related information in the system database.

[0039] Step seven, continue to repeat the operation of step six until the buffer area of ​​the unloader meets the AGV's handling requirements. The AGV transports the carrier to the diffusion process. The loader of the diffusion process transfers the silicon wafers in the carrier to the quartz boat, and then places it in the diffusion equipment for diffusion treatment. The AGV transports the empty carrier to the front end of the loader of the texturing equipment to start the next carrier turnover cycle.

[0040] In step 1, when the number of carriers reaches ten, the AGV meets the transport requirements. The AGV is an automated tracking vehicle that moves the ten carriers sequentially between the processes. The flow of carriers between processes is fixed, and the same batch of carriers only flows between adjacent processes.

[0041] In step 4, the machine has a unique production mode, such as processing four or six carriers simultaneously. Based on the machine's different processing modes, the system calculates the position of each carrier within the machine. This position corresponds one-to-one with the carrier number and virtual number. Furthermore, each machine is unique, and different calculation modes are used depending on the machine type and processing mode.

[0042] The virtual number is counted by a sensor and can record data very accurately. When the carrier number cannot be read, the corresponding carrier number and silicon wafer information can be matched through the virtual number.

[0043] The carrier number is read using RFID. The carrier is a flower basket, but the carrier can also be other containers as long as it contains a chip that is read using RFID. It is not limited to a flower basket.

[0044] Example 2: The present invention is applied to the method of tracing single wafers in the carrier flow between the diffusion process and the alkali washing process as follows:

[0045] Step 1: AGV transports the carrier filled with textured silicon wafers;

[0046] Step 2: The loader takes out the silicon wafer and loads it onto the quartz boat for the diffusion process. At this time, the loader reads the carrier number, equipment number, and loading port number, and generates a virtual number. The virtual number is a sequence code generated by the loader according to the order of the loaded carriers. Since there are multiple diffusion equipments, each with more than one quartz boat, it corresponds to multiple loading ports. Therefore, the loader needs to update the equipment number and loading port number to match the carrier number. The virtual number is the order of the loaded carriers, which is consistent with the transportation order of the empty carriers returned from the alkali cleaning equipment.

[0047] Step 3: If the loader successfully reads the carrier number, the read record will be updated in the system database. If the loader fails to read the carrier number, the system will retrieve the carrier number corresponding to the carrier previously stored in the database according to the carrier's virtual number, and update the relevant information of the carrier in the system database. The existence of the virtual number is to assist in the identification and matching of the carrier number. Since the loading order and the unloading order are consistent, the virtual number and the carrier number are one-to-one corresponding. Even if the carrier number cannot be identified, the corresponding virtual number still exists, so the carrier information can be matched from the database.

[0048] Step 4: Continuing with the steps in step 3, the loader reads the carrier number of each carrier and sequentially inserts the silicon wafers in the carrier into the quartz boat for diffusion processing in the diffusion equipment. Based on the production mode of the diffusion equipment, the system calculates the position of each carrier in the diffusion equipment.

[0049] Step 5: After the diffusion process is completed, the unloader removes the quartz boat from the diffusion equipment and places it into the corresponding carrier for the alkali cleaning process. The order of removing silicon wafers from the quartz boat of the diffusion equipment and placing them into the carrier is consistent with the order of loading the carrier in the alkali cleaning process. The unloader's robotic arm stores the carriers filled with diffused silicon wafers in the buffer area.

[0050] Step 6: The blanking machine reads the carrier number, equipment number, and blanking port number, and generates a virtual number. If the blanking machine successfully reads the carrier number, the reading record is updated in the system database. If the blanking machine fails to read the carrier number, the system will retrieve the carrier number previously stored in the database based on the carrier's virtual number, blanking port number, and equipment number, and update the carrier's related information in the system database.

[0051] Step seven, continue to repeat the operation of step six until the buffer area of ​​the unloader meets the AGV's transportation requirements. The AGV will transport the carrier to the alkaline washing process. The loader of the alkaline washing process will put the silicon wafers in the carrier into the alkaline washing equipment for alkaline washing. The AGV will then transport the empty carrier to the unloader of the diffusion equipment to start the next carrier turnover cycle.

[0052] The present invention has the following advantages:

[0053] (1) Reduce the complexity of equipment development.

[0054] (2) Improve the accuracy of single-chip traceability.

[0055] (3) Quickly put it online and use it.

[0056] The above description is merely illustrative of certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention. It goes without saying that those skilled in the art will be able to modify the described embodiments in various ways without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the above drawings and description are illustrative in nature and should not be construed as limiting the scope of protection of the claims.

Claims

1. A tracing method for carrier compensation between solar cell manufacturing processes, characterized in that: The steps include: Step 1: AGV transports the carrier full of silicon wafers; Step 2: The loader loads the carriers onto the equipment one by one. The loader reads the carrier number, equipment number, and loading port number, and generates a virtual number. The virtual number is a sequence code generated by the loader according to the order of the loaded carriers. Step 3: If the loader successfully reads the carrier number, the read record will be updated in the system database. If the loader fails to read the carrier number, the system will retrieve the carrier number corresponding to the carrier previously stored in the database according to the virtual number of the carrier, and update the relevant information of the carrier in the system database; Step 4: Continue the operation of step 3. The loader reads the carrier number of each carrier and transports the carriers to the equipment for processing in sequence. According to the production mode of the equipment, the system calculates the position of each carrier in the equipment. Step 5: After the processing is completed, the unloader takes the carriers out of the equipment one by one to the buffer area according to the previous loading order. The robotic arm of the unloader takes the carriers out of the equipment to the buffer area of ​​the unloader. The order of the unloader unloading the carriers is consistent with the order of the loading carriers. Step 6: The feeder reads the carrier number, equipment number, feed port number, and generates a virtual number. If the feeder reads the carrier number successfully, the read record is updated in the system database. If the feeder fails to read the carrier number, the system retrieves the carrier number previously stored in the database according to the carrier's virtual number, feed port number, and equipment number, and updates the carrier's related information in the system database. Step seven, continue to repeat the operation of step six until the buffer area of ​​the unloader meets the AGV's transportation requirements. The AGV transports the carrier to the next process. After unloading, the AGV transports the empty carrier to the front end of the loader to start the next carrier turnover cycle.

2. The tracing method for carrier compensation between solar cell manufacturing processes according to claim 1, characterized in that: In the step 1, when the number of carriers reaches ten, the AGV meets the transportation requirements. The AGV is an automatic tracking vehicle that can transfer the ten carriers in sequence between the processes.

3. The tracing method for carrier compensation between solar cell manufacturing processes according to claim 1, characterized in that: In step 4, the equipment has a unique production mode, such as processing four carriers together or processing six carriers together. According to the different processing modes of the equipment, the system calculates the position of the carrier in the equipment, and the position corresponds one-to-one with the carrier number and the virtual number.

4. The tracing method for carrier compensation between solar cell manufacturing processes according to claim 1, characterized in that: The virtual number is counted by a sensor and can record data very accurately. When the carrier number cannot be read, the corresponding carrier number and silicon wafer information can be matched through the virtual number.

5. The tracing method for carrier compensation between solar cell manufacturing processes according to claim 1, characterized in that: The carrier number is read using RFID, and the carrier is a flower basket.