Momentum is building for the development and widespread adoption of standards in the solar photovoltaic manufacturing industry. Defining future standards development efforts has been a constant challenge as companies collaborate in a pre-competitive environment to define the best path to foster innovation and market growth. Companies that actively participate in the development process will have access to the most current information available, and more importantly, these companies will shape the development of the industry and their role in it.

Explore, evaluate, discuss, and create consensus-based standard measurement methods, specifications, guidelines, and practices that, through voluntary compliance, will promote mutual understanding and improved communication between users and suppliers of photovoltaic manufacturing equipment, materials and services to enhance the manufacturing efficiency and capability to reduce manufacturing cost of the photovoltaic (PV) industry.

For over 35 years, the SEMI International Standards Program has been well known for developing global consensus standards for the semiconductor industry. Less well-known, but now increasing in visibility, is the long SEMI history of developing PV Standards, leveraging the many similarities that PV manufacturing has to that of the semiconductor and FPD industries. The first SEMI Photovoltaic Standard, M6, Specification for Silicon Wafers for Use as Photovoltaic Solar Cells, was published in 1981. With a global infrastructure serving major PV manufacturing regions, PV Standardization activity at SEMI is now taking center stage.

• PV wafer and cell transport carriers
• Thin film substrate dimensions
• Single substrate tracking
• Equipment to equipment communication
• Solar grade silicon feedstock
• Connector ribbon
• Minority carrier lifetime
• Transparent conductive oxide
• Cell specification template
• Impurity test methods
• Process chemicals and gases
• Cell and module vibration test method
• Cell appearance
• Cell defect detection

Committees are now active in Europe, Japan, North America, and Taiwan, and a Working Group is forming in China. Over 400 technical experts from leading companies in all segments of the photovoltaic supply chain are currently involved in PV Standards efforts at SEMI. Join them in this important effort. Registration is free and only takes a few minutes. Register at www.semi.org/standardsmembership.

To learn more, please visit www.pvgroup.org/standards or www.semi.org/standards.

• PV1-0709: Test Method for Measuring Trace Elements in Silicon Feedstock for Silicon Solar Cells by High-Mass Resolution Glow Discharge Mass Spectrometry
• PV2-0709E: Guide for PV Equipment Communication Interfaces (PVECI)
• PV3-0310: Guide for High Purity Water Used in Photovoltaic Cell Processing
• SEMI F108-0310 - Guide for Integration of Liquid Chemical Piping Components for Semiconductor, Flat Panel Display, and Solar Cell Manufacturing Applications
• SEMI F47-0706 - Specification for Semiconductor Processing Equipment Voltage Sag Immunity
• SEMI M6-1108 - Specification for Silicon Wafers for Use as Photovoltaic Solar Cells
• SEMI M44-0305 - Guide to Conversion Factors for Interstitial Oxygen in Silicon
• SEMI MF391-0310 - Test Method for Minority Carrier Diffusion Length in Extrinsic Semiconductors by Measurement of Steady-State Surface Photovoltage
• SEMI MF1188-1107- Test Method for Interstitial Oxygen Content of Silicon by Infrared Absorption With Short Baseline
• SEMI MF1619-1107 - Test Method for Measurement of Interstitial Oxygen Content of Silicon Wafers by Infrared Absorption Spectroscopy with p-Polarized Radiation Incident at the Brewster Angle
• SEMI MF1727-0304 - Practice for Detection of Oxidation Induced Defects in Polished Silicon Wafers
• SEMI MF1809-0704 - Guide for Selection and Use of Etching Solutions to Delineate Structural Defects in Silicon
• SEMI MF1810-0304 - Test Method for Counting Preferentially Etched or Decorated Surface Defects in Silicon Wafers

PV Standards - General
James Amano (jamano@semi.org)

North America
Kevin Nguyen (knguyen@semi.org)

Japan
Ken Okuda (kokuda@semi.org)

China
Steven Gan (sgan@semi.org)

Taiwan
Leon Huang (lhuang@semi.org)

Korea
Natalie Shim (eshim@semi.org)

Europe
Carlos Lee (clee@semi.org)

PV Group - Headquarters
Bettina Weiss (bweiss@semi.org)

Updated February 9, 2010