KLA-Tencor announces FabVision Solar

MILPITAS, USA: KLA-Tencor Corp. has introduced FabVision Solar. The new integrated solution is designed to help photovoltaic (PV) cell manufacturers improve production yield and profitability by enabling manufacturers to react more quickly to metrology and defectivity excursions. FabVision Solar leverages KLA-Tencor's ICOS PVI-6 data through a wide range of analysis and monitoring features to provide better control and improve visibility into the manufacturing process.

"Since testing FabVision Solar with the PVI-6 tool in recent months, the speed and accuracy of our defect analysis processes has significantly improved, contributing to overall increased yield," said Wouter Verbist, process specialist at Photovoltech. "We believe this product is positioned to become a necessity for world-class solar cell manufacturers looking to increase efficiency and improve yield by quickly identifying and understanding defectivity root cause, enabling effective proactive decisions that impact bottom-line results."

FabVision Solar is a turn-key, integrated solution for PV cell manufacturing that complements customers' existing automated optical inspection strategies. With FabVision Solar, users can now identify the root cause of defectivity issues by applying production-proven defectivity and metrology methodologies from the integrated circuit (IC) and wafer markets that are designed specifically for ICOS PVI-6 tools and optimized for the solar industry. Previously the PV manufacturing market relied on time-consuming manual analysis methods.

"The introduction of FabVision Solar fills a void in the PV cell manufacturing market for real-time predictive analysis," said Jeff Donnelly, group vice president, Growth and Emerging Markets (GEM) at KLA-Tencor. "Implementing data collection, defectivity and line-monitoring best practices enables our PVI-6 tool owners to take proactive measures throughout the manufacturing process. The ability to review in-line data at any point, not just for excursions, dramatically shifts our customers toward predictive action."

FabVision Solar includes:
Excursion/process monitoring (statistical process control): provides process control through in-line monitoring of all PVI-6 measurement parameters and alarms/email notifications on excursions.

Automated report generation: increases visibility into manufacturing process with time-based automated reporting analysis of optical inspection measurement results from multiple inspection modules across multiple fab manufacturing lines

Detection of repeating defects and warning capabilities: enables quick reaction to excursions with configurable rules set by proximity, defect type and frequency of occurrence; and real-time alarms for email notification and on-tool warning

Defect signature identification using multiple wafer/cell stacking: provides means to visualize defect signatures or frequently impacted wafer/cell locations for root cause understanding and action in the production line

Eased problem identification through wafer/cell image review: captures wafer/cell images and data from the PVI-6 and allows complete review of images complemented by eased navigation through data.