Machine-vision-based identification for wafer tracking in solar cell manufacturing

Solar power is getting popular as an alternative of electricity energy. Multicrystalline solar cells dominate the current market share because of lower material and manufacturing costs. In solar cell manufacturing, a silicon ingot is sliced into thin wafers and then the wafers are further processed into solar cells. Conventional automatic identification systems such as bar codes, magnetic strips, OCR and RFID need a contacted identity on the object surface. They are not possible to implement for solar wafer tracking and data collection due to the thin, fragile silicon surface of a solar wafer.