SEMI PV automation standards group forms new committees

The SEMI PV Group, a trade association for the PV manufacturing supply chain, has formed new PV automation standards committees for Japan and Europe. The new committees will initially handle equipment-to-equipment communication, cell transport carriers, and single substrate tracking. The existing PV committee, on the other hand, will continue to focus on non-automation issues such as material specifications and test methods.

Tino Korner (Q-Cells), Eberhard Teichmann (Peer Group) and Martin Zennig (Jonas & Redmann) will co-chair the Europe Committee while Terry Asakawa (Tokyo Electron) and Emi Ishikawa (Atelier Ishikawa) will co-chair the Japan Committee.

The growth of the global PV industry has forced the need to reassess standardization. The new global PV Automation Committee's Carrier Task Force is working to standardize equipment load ports and transport systems while the PV Equipment Interface Specification Task Force is trying to reduce costs in areas where different pieces of equipment are joined by software interfaces.

Advanced automation in the production of solar cells and panels is expected to result in major cost savings while groundwork made by the Crystalline Technology Manufacturing Group, a special interest group of major European cell makers and operating under SEMI PV Group, has identified possible areas of collaboration to create manufacturing standards.