Stäubli's four-axis Scara TS60 robot realizes high-efficiency production of solar cells

challenge

Automated operation to ensure that the damage rate is less than 0.1%

The demand for automated control of solar cell production processes continues to promote the development of traditional solutions. An automated system that was first put into production in East Asia can achieve a production capacity of 3,000 pieces per hour. At the same time, special care must be taken when handling ultra-thin silicon wafers, because every seemingly insignificant pause in the robot's motion sequence may cause it to break. This will not only push up the cost of system operators, but also cause adverse effects on system manufacturers who usually guarantee a breakage rate of less than 0.1%.

solution

High-speed SCARA replaces Delta robot

German system integrator Baumann is committed to the development of innovative automation solutions for the photovoltaic industry. Its standardized modules for loading and unloading of semiconductor cleaning devices are favored by customers. With the excellent performance of the system, it has established key factors such as cycle time, breakage rate and reliability. New industry standard. And its core is the Stäubli four-axis Scara TS60 robot.

The unit designed by Baumann is specifically designed to handle two different sizes of monocrystalline and polycrystalline silicon wafers. The wafer size is 125 x 125 mm and 156 x 156 mm. Thanks to sophisticated hardware and software solutions, it only takes up to 10 minutes to switch from one size silicon wafer to another.

The silicon wafers are delivered to the assembly module via a one-way conveyor. Here, the robot picks up ultra-thin silicon wafers and places them in precise positions on the five guide rails of the semiconductor cleaning device. In order to meet customer needs, the maximum silicon wafer output of the system is as high as 3000 wafers per hour. In this regard, Baumann's automation experts did not choose the Delta robot, but innovatively chose two Stäubli high-speed TS60 Scara robots to work together.

At the same time, due to high-torque applications, Delta robots need to expand the entire system modules disproportionately, which would violate the compact and flexible basic design of the integrator. The Stäubli TS60 has a small footprint and flexible installation methods.

Results

Perfect synchronization

At Baumann, they are particularly proud of the perfect synchronization of the speed of the two robots and the conveyor belt. Since two Scara robots take turns to pick up silicon wafers at the same point on the conveyor belt, programming in this way can avoid collisions, so there is no need for additional collision protection. At the same time, the two robots must be absolutely synchronized with the speed of the conveyor belt. Programming these tasks requires a lot of technical expertise. They found that the rich options provided by the Stäubli CS8C controller and the conveyor tracking system were very helpful.

When ultra-thin silicon wafers are placed on any of the five tracks of a semiconductor cleaning device, precise positioning is essential. Two TS60s use their vacuum clamps to alternately pick up silicon wafers from a high-speed one-way conveyor belt at extremely fast speeds. Prior to this, an image processing camera mounted on the belt feeder wanted to capture the precise location of the silicon wafer and transmit the information to the robot's controller in just a few milliseconds. Then the task that the robot needs to undertake is to accurately place the expensive silicon wafer on the precise position of any one of the five guide rails of the semiconductor cleaning device.

Baumann project manager Jörg Weigert summarized the reasons for using the Stäubli Scara robot: "We always believe in the excellent performance of the Stäubli Scara robot. Even in the case of continuous use for many years, this robot can guarantee fast, accurate and very Reliability. Stäubli’s Scara robots are rugged, reliable, and require little maintenance for this application. Our customers report that the equipment often runs continuously for several days without a piece of silicon chip damaged."

Liquid Crystal Display For Vehicle Use

Dongguan Yijia Optoelectronics Co., Ltd. , https://www.everbestlcdlcms.com