System for manufacturing a shingled solar cell module

Abstract

A high efficiency configuration for a solar cell module comprises solar cells conductively bonded to each other in a shingled manner to form super cells, which may be arranged to efficiently use the area of the solar module, reduce series resistance, and increase module efficiency. The front surface metallization patterns on the solar cells may be configured to enable single step stencil printing, which is facilitated by the overlapping configuration of the solar cells in the super cells. A solar photovoltaic system may comprise two or more such high voltage solar cell modules electrically connected in parallel with each other and to an inverter. Solar cell cleaving tools and solar cell cleaving methods apply a vacuum between bottom surfaces of a solar cell wafer and a curved supporting surface to flex the solar cell wafer against the curved supporting surface and thereby cleave the solar cell wafer along one or more previously prepared scribe lines to provide a plurality of solar cells. An advantage of these cleaving tools and cleaving methods is that they need not require physical contact with the upper surfaces of the solar cell wafer. Solar cells are manufactured with reduced carrier recombination losses at edges of the solar cell, e.g., without cleaved edges that promote carrier recombination. The solar cells may have narrow rectangular geometries and may be advantageously employed in shingled (overlapping) arrangements to form super cells.