UNSW collaboration delivers revolutionary faster, safer, cheaper and more insightful solar-cell testing technology
- alisonpotter2
- 10 hours ago
- 2 min read
A collaboration between UNSW’s ACDC Photovoltaic Research Group and ACAP industry partner BT Imaging – a UNSW spin-out – has delivered a breakthrough solar-cell inspection system set to transform manufacturing efficiency worldwide.
“While solar cells have advanced dramatically in recent years, the main quality inspection tool has remained largely unchanged for over a decade,” says Professor Ziv Hameiri, from the ACDC Research Group.
“Our new technology offers lower-cost, higher-throughput testing and, importantly, new insights that will make solar cells more efficient and reliable. It is also compatible with next-generation solar materials and designs, including perovskites and tandems.”
Conventional current-voltage (I-V) testing must touch the fragile surface of a solar cell and can only measure performance after metal contacts are added, making it difficult to detect issues early in production. It cannot pinpoint the exact location or type of defects in the cell, and it struggles with the complex architectures of emerging cell types.
By contrast, the new UNSW–BT Imaging system is completely contactless, combining photoluminescence (PL) and artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse cell quality. When light is shone onto a cell, the luminescence it gives off is captured and interpreted by AI software to identify microscopic defects and predict performance in real-world conditions. This allows manufacturers to pinpoint and understand problems much earlier, improving quality and reducing waste.
The innovation is already attracting international attention. “We have three of the largest solar manufacturers in the world testing our system, and we’re in discussions with several others,” Professor Hameiri says. “They can see that this approach is vital.”
Today’s AI-enhanced, contactless system builds on decades of research at UNSW, where Prof. Thorsten Trupke and colleagues pioneered practical applications of PL imaging for photovoltaic (PV) wafers and solar cells, eventually leading to commercial spin-out BT Imaging in 2007, which developed the first industrially scalable PL inspection systems.
For many years, ACAP has supported Hameiri’s ACDC Research Group, including undergraduate and PhD scholarships, travel support, and valuable connections with leading PV companies. Professor Hameiri says, “This ongoing support makes progress much easier.”
The UNSW–BT Imaging system partnership has been supported by TRaCE Lab to Market Fund, with a $400,000 grant, to turn these UNSW ACAP-supported breakthroughs into practical, factory-ready systems for both silicon and next-generation solar cells.
Dr. Shubham Duttagupta, Managing Director of BT Imaging says, “Partnerships like this allow us to keep pushing innovation into the marketplace. By combining UNSW’s cutting-edge methods with our commercialisation expertise, we’re creating inspection systems that manufacturers can rely on, that are faster, more accurate, and future-proofed for the next generation of solar cells.”
This exciting result positions Australia as a leader in solar-manufacturing solutions that are expected to save the global PV industry billions of dollars each year.
