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An Overview of Wet Chemistry Processing for the Manufacture of Silicon Solar Cells
The solar cell industry has been
truly remarkable to observe over the past ten years. During this
time, the industry has sustained a CAGR of more than 40 percent in
cell production. Silicon consumption is currently twice that of the
much more mature semiconductor industry.1
Up until the first half of 2008, attractive operating margins were
sustained throughout most of the supply chain. However, since the
second half of 2008, like most other industries, the Photovoltaic
(PV) industry is experiencing significant challenges. The current
credit crisis has impacted initiation of new PV projects and module
supply is currently exceeding that of demand.
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 | Organic Photovoltaics Offer Promise for Future Development
Photovoltaic
(PV) cells are expected to be a large part of the solution to wean
developed countries from their dependence on fossil fuels. Once used
primarily for power generation in space and other remote locations,
they are now increasingly used to meet commercial, industrial, and
household energy needs.
by Jim Handy
Alain Harrus
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Market Outlook: Ever Increasing (But Still Restrained) Optimism
The
U.S. economic outlook continues to brighten (modestly). Stock prices,
consumer and business confidence, the ISM “Purchasing Managers”
index, and even auto sales were up as we wrote this column in early
June. Although we are clearly still in a recession, a more optimistic
tone is emerging. The Wall Street Journal’s panel of “Blue Chip”
economists recently modified its U.S. GDP growth forecast - with Q209
still projected to decline (but at a lesser amount than forecasted
earlier) and then growth resuming in the third quarter (Chart 1).
by Walt Custer
Jonathan Custer-Topai
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BPA Growth Curves: Where Are We on the Business Cycle?
We
hear plenty about the disastrous situation “sub primes” got us
into and we have felt the effect very severely in our industry. The
downturn is into its second year, the really crucial questions are,
“Where are we on the cycle?” and “When will things pick up?”
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Lead Wire: Hot, Hot, Hot
To
say that photovoltaics (PV) is a hot topic could very well be an
understatement.
While it started as a practical way to
power satellites and other spacecraft, a majority of PV modules are
used for power-grid energy production. In fact, according to
statistics for sustainable investing (socialfunds.com), photovoltaic
production has doubled every two years since 2002 and is currently
the fastest growing energy technology in the world.
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Intelligent Design: On the Use of Blind and Buried Vias
In
recent months, I have encountered a number of high-layer-count PCB
designs with high-pin-count BGAs, such as FPGAs with 1 mm pitch
contacts, designed with blind and buried via technology. Using this
technology, these PCBs have been difficult to design, difficult to
manufacture, more expensive than their through-hole counterparts, and
difficult to test and troubleshoot. At the same time, PCBs of similar
complexity and density were being done in the same number of layers
using standard through-hole technology with none of these drawbacks,
and at lower overall cost.
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Ask the Flexperts: Treat Me Gently…Treat Me Kind
Proper circuit
handling is a big issue, both for the manufacturer during the build
process and for the end user at assembly. Damage due to improper
transport and assembly is an issue for the PCB “hardboard”
industry, but is magnified when handling a “softer” flex-circuit.
Polyimide and Mylar are easily damaged when they come in contact with
a sharp connector pin or other metal component. Sometimes the best
efforts to handle circuits in a “one up” configuration go awry
during the many processing steps involved in final assembly.
by Mark Finstad
Mark Verbrugge
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