Advanced Production Challenges for Automated Ultra-Thin Wafer Handling

The handling of thin wafers in today’s production lines demands high standards of the automation as well as complex investigations with a closer look on the actual and future needs for an economic and competitive production of solar cells. This paper describes the analysis and evaluation methods developed by the authors for ultrathin wafers (<100 μm) which are created by a newly developed wafering technique. A short overview about the new handling experiments within the automation test platform at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA) is subsequently followed by detailed ultra-thin wafer handling experiments. Different approaches were tested for the automated handling of the ultra-thin silicon foils. The difference in handling of curled and flat substrates, caused by the newly developed wafering method, will be pointed out as well as the difficulties for transportation with high-speed parameter settings. While looking for a reliable gripping advanced production challenges are given due to the requirement of certain cleanliness.