Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd.

Wuhan Dr Laser Technology Corp.,ltd

Utilight Ltd.

Orbotech Limited

Sunterra Corporation

Finarov, Moshe

Brill, Boaz

Moshe Finarov

Boaz Brill

Yoel Cohen

Giora Dishon

Zvi Nirel

David Scheiner

David Schiener

Klara Vinokur

Amir Noy

Eran Dvir

Avi Ravid

Eli Haimovich

Eyal Cohen

Mikhael Matusovsky

Gad Igra

Eran Yunger

Yigal Katzir

Yehoshua Sheinman

Shahar Gov

Shay Ghilai

Natalie Levinsohn

Tao Xu

Benjamin Shulman

Jing Shi

Beniamin Shulman

Rani Kipper

Rony Abaron

Zhigang Li

Weiguo Tong

Oren Stern

A photovoltaic system including a PV module or a number of modules held by a mount consisting of two vertical posts anchored to the ground and two hinges from both sides of the PV module, such hinges providing a pivot for free rotation of the PV module, which is located above the center of mass of the PV module. The rotation of the PV module around the pivot under wind loads significantly reduces the load applied to the mount, thus significantly reducing its manufacturing and installation cost. Using such flapping mount with bifacial PV modules supports the wider use of vertically mounted PV modules.

Mount for vertical photovoltaic modules

Pattern transfer sheets and methods are provided, providing multi-layer paste stack lines that are printed on a receiving substrate in a single illumination step. The paste is filled layer-by-layer, possibly having different materials in different layers, with layer thickness controlled by parameters of the filling elements, e.g., in case of blades, the pressure, angle, velocity and flexibility (material) of the blade. Specifically, a bottom layer of the stack may be configured to interface the receiving substrate while one or more top layers may be configured to optimize the quality of the printed features. For example, bottom layers may comprise to bind to the substrate, to modify the substrate (e.g., forming selective emitter (SE) therein) and/or provide a barrier from top layer(s) which may not be compatible with the substrate (e.g., copper on silicon). Releasing material may be used to support the single step release of the stack line.

Pattern transfer printing of multi-layered features

Dynamic pattern transfer printing systems and method are provided, which decouple the design of the trench patterns on a source substrate for pattern transfer printing, from the resulting metallic paste lines patterns transferred to a receiving substrate, such as PV cells. The receiving substrate may be moved forward (along the scanning direction of the laser illumination used to transfer the paste from the trenches onto the receiving substrate) to reduce the pattern pitch with respect to the source substrate, and/or the receiving substrate may be moved backward (against the scanning direction) to increase the pattern pitch with respect to the source substrate. For example, dynamic pattern transfer printing may be used to accommodate different widths of the substrates for more effective pattern transfer, and/or to enable one-to-many pattern transfer technologies with high wafer throughput. Also, pattern transfer sheet with separate multiple groups of trenches are provided.

Dynamic pattern transfer printing and pattern transfer sheets with spaced groups of trenches

Pattern transfer printing (PTP) systems and methods are provided to improve the quality, accuracy and throughput of pattern transfer printing. PTP systems comprise a tape handling unit for handling a tape with pattern transfer sheets sections and for controllably delivering the pattern transfer sheets one-by-one for paste filling and consecutively for pattern transfer, with the tape moving from an unwinder roll to a re-winding roll. PTP systems further comprise a paste filling unit which enables continuous paste filling using a supporting counter roll opposite to the paste filling head, a wafer handling unit controllably delivering wafers for the pattern transfer in a parallelized manner that increases throughput, a paste transfer unit with enhanced accuracy and efficiency due to exact monitoring and wafer alignment, as well as a print quality control unit.

Pattern transfer printing systems and methods

A bus bar for a silicon solar cell. The bus bar is a strip of electrically conductive material with a plurality of protrusions extending from at least one side of the bus bar.

Solar cell bus bars

Alignment of layers during manufacture of a multi-layer sample is controlled by applying optical measurements to a measurement site in the sample. The measurement site includes two diffractive structures located one above the other in two different layers, respectively. The optical measurements include at least two measurements with different polarization states of incident light, each measurement including illuminating the measurement site so as to illuminate one of the diffractive structures through the other. The diffraction properties of the measurement site are indicative of a lateral shift between the diffractive structures. The diffraction properties detected are analyzed for the different polarization states of the incident light to determine an existing lateral shift between the layers.

Lateral shift measurement using an optical technique

A method of depositing a material on a receiving substrate, the method comprising: providing a source substrate having a back surface and a front surface, the back surface carrying at least one piece of coating material; providing a receiving substrate positioned adjacent to the source substrate and facing the coating material; and radiating light towards the front surface of the source substrate, to remove at least one piece of the coating material from the source substrate and deposit said removed at least one piece onto the receiving substrate as a whole.

Light induced patterning

Apparatus for processing substrates according to a predetermined photolithography process includes a loading station in which the substrates are loaded, a coating station in which the substrates are coated with a photoresist material, an exposing station in which the photoresist coating is exposed to light through a mask having a predetermined pattern to produce a latent image of the mask on the photoresist coating, a developing station in which the latent image is developed, an unloading station in which the substrates are unloaded and a monitoring station for monitoring the substrates with respect to predetermined parameters of said photolithography process before reaching the unloading station.

Monitoring apparatus and method particularly useful in photolithographically processing substrates

A method and system are presented for determining a line profile in a patterned structure, aimed at controlling a process of manufacture of the structure. The patterned structure comprises a plurality of different layers, the pattern in the structure being formed by patterned regions and un-patterned regions. At least first and second measurements are carried out, each utilizing illumination of the structure with a broad wavelengths band of incident light directed on the structure at a certain angle of incidence, detection of spectral characteristics of light returned from the structure, and generation of measured data representative thereof. The measured data obtained with the first measurement is analyzed, and at least one parameter of the structure is thereby determined. Then, this determined parameter is utilized, while analyzing the measured data obtained with the second measurements enabling the determination of the profile of the structure.

Method and system for measuring patterned structures

A process control system is provided for use with a processing tool for thin film patterning by a material removal processing system. The system includes an optical end-point detector operable within a working area defined by the processing tool when the processing tool is applied to an article, the optical end-point detector performing in-situ measurements of parameters of patterned thin film on the article. An optical integrated monitoring tool is installed with the processing tool and operable outside the working area for measuring parameters of the patterned thin film on the article. A control unit is connected to the end-point detector and to the integrated monitoring tool, and includes processing and computational intelligence responsive to data received from the end-point detector and to the measured data received from the integrated monitoring tool for analyzing data and generating a signal for terminating the patterning of the thin film on the article.

Method and system for endpoint detection

A photovoltaic cell, the cell comprising:

Solar cells and method of manufacturing thereof

A method and system are provided for controlling processing of a structure. First measured data is provided being indicative of at least one of: a thickness (d) of at least one layer (L) of the structure W in at least selected sites of the structure prior to processing of the structure, and a surface profile of the structure prior to processing. An optical measurement is applied to at least the selected sites of the structure after processing and second measured data is generated being indicative of at least one of: a thickness of the processed structure (d') and a surface profile of the processed structure. The second measured data is analyzed by interpreting it using the first measured data to determine a thickness (d&#x2032;or d&#x2032;) of at least one layer of the processed structure. This determined thickness is indicative of the quality of processing.

Thin films measurement method and system

Growing community of inventors

Rehovot, Israel

Moshe Finarov