Real-Time Monitoring of Laser Scribing Process of CIGS Solar Panels Utilizing High-Speed Camera

The aim of this letter is to develop a novel method for the monitoring of ultra-high-speed process of laser scribing with a high-speed camera and evaluate reliability and performance of the developed monitoring system with experimental methods. The case study in this letter is monitoring of copper indium gallium selenide solar panels’ scribing. Due to high-quality requirement of the scribing process of solar panels, it is important to monitor the process in real time to detect possible defects during the process. In order to evaluate the performance of the developed real-time monitoring system, an IPG ytterbium-pulsed fiber laser with 20-W maximum average power is used. A powerful fully programmable industrial computer was chosen for executing real-time image processing and analysis. Algorithms for defect analysis, which are based on Particle Analysis, were developed using LabVIEW real time. As a result, the maximum analysis speed of the process was a record breaking of 560 frames/s in real time, including the analysis of each image in real time. Reliability of the algorithm was evaluated by imaging and analyzing the process with a variable number of defects 2000 mm/s and the algorithm detected all defects from the scribing path.