Photovoltaic manufacturing standards - the path to yield-up/costdown

Founded in 1970, SEMI is a global industry association serving the broad microelectronics supply chain segments, including photovoltaic. The SEMI International Standards Program was established in 1973 to support the fast growing semiconductor manufacturing industry by creating industry standards developed by suppliers, device manufacturers, safety experts and other stakeholders. The Program has expanded over the last 36 years to support standards development efforts in related technologies such as MEMS, flat panel displays, nanotechnology and, since 2007, also photovoltaics. Within a few short months after establishing SEMI's PV Group, Standards development was the first organized collective activity. Since inception of less than two years ago, the PV Group is credited with numerous accomplishments. Those are outlined below.