IMPACT OF BACKSHEET ON INTERCONNECTOR AND CELL BREAKAGE IN PV LAMINATES UNDER

MECHANICAL LOADS

F. Haase*, J. Käsewieter, R. Winter, S. Blankemeyer, A. Morlier, I. Kunze, and M. Köntges

Institute for Solar Energy Research Hamelin (ISFH),
Am Ohrberg 1, D-31860 Emmerthal, Germany
*telephone: +49 5151 999 313, fax: +49 5151 999 400, email: f.haase@isfh.de

We investigate the impact of the backsheet on cell interconnect ribbon and cell breakage in PV laminates. Standard
sized laminates with and without a backsheet are mechanically loaded in a 4 line bending setup. We detect cracks in
cells and cell interconnect ribbons by electroluminescence and measure cell crack widths and cell gap widths on
photographs taken during the loading. Crack and gap widths increase with increasing bending. In the laminate
without a backsheet the crack and gap widths increase by a factor of 1.7 to 3 more. The backsheet is under tensile
stress which is partly transferred to the cells keeping the cell and gap widths smaller. Since the crack resistance
increases with increasing crack width, insulated cell parts can occur at lower laminate loading in the laminate without
a backsheet. A larger change in cell gap width causes more plastic deformation of the cell interconnect ribbon which
leads to fatigue breakage after repeated load cycles. After the corrosion of the broken interface of the cell
interconnect ribbon, the laminates show a reduction in module efficiency of 10.3 % (without backsheet) and of 2.2 %
(with backsheet). This result emphasizes the importance of the mechanical properties of the backsheet.
Keywords: PV Module, Multicrystalline Silicon, Ribbons, Durability

1 INTRODUCTION damp heat test on a subsequent mechanical treatment. In

During service life, a PV module is treated
mechanically several times. It is fabricated, transported
[1], installed [2] and finally loaded by wind and snow.
This can lead to cell cracks which can reduce the module
power if the cracks separate the metallization of the cell.
An insulated cell part of more than 8 % leads to
significant power loss in the module [3]. The fracture
strength of the solar cells is dependent on the orientation
of the busbars relative to the applied stress direction and
the thermal pretreatment [4], pre damage of the solar
cells [5] or the encapsulant stiffness [6]. The repeated
wind and snow loads can also cause fatigue breakage of
the cell interconnect ribbons (CIR) [7].
In this work we investigate the importance of a
backsheet (BS) on the breakage behavior of cells and
CIRs. The BS compresses the cells in the in plane
direction of the cell in the PV laminate [8]. BSs
especially made from polyethylene terephthalates (PET)
can lose the mechanical integrity by UV-irradiation in the
field [9]. In this case the BS cannot compress the cells in
the laminate any more. The compressive stress might
hinder cracks in cells to lose their electrical contact
between the cracked cell parts. Therefore a mechanical
load test with laminates with and without a BS allows
assessing the influence of aging BSs to the cell crack
properties.
We bend standard sized frameless laminates, one
with and one without a BS, in a 4 line bending setup. We
introduce a homogeneous uniaxial stress field between
the inner bending rolls which allows for the same
interpretation of the results for every cell in this area. We
detect the stress induced cracks with electroluminescence
[10] and measure the cell crack widths and cell gap width
on photographs. The shape of the laminate is determined
by digital image correlation [11]. The cell crack width is
correlated to the crack resistance and for this to the
laminate power degradation. The gap width has an
influence on the fatigue CIR breakage and for this to the
laminate power degradation. Afterwards the laminates are
exposed to a damp heat test to investigate the corrosion
effect at the cell crack and CIR crack interfaces. A
repeated bending test investigates the influence of the
combination with output power measurements we can
explain the origin of the losses in dependence of the
presence of a BS in the laminate.
2 EXPERIMENTAL
2.1 Sample preparation
We fabricate two laminates in our laboratory. We
build the laminates with commercial multicrystalline full-
square 3 busbars solar cells each 15.6 × 15.6 cm2 sized.
We interconnect the cells with a stringer (Module
Stringer Simplex/Mikron Berlin GmbH). We use copper
cell interconnect ribbons with a width of 1.5 mm and a
thickness of 150 µm with a yield stress of
Rp,0,2 = 111 MPa covered with a Sn62Pb36Ag2 solder. The
strings have 10 cells each and six strings are
interconnected in series like in a standard PV module.
Contrary to PV modules, no bypass diodes are installed.
The gap between the cells is 4 mm in every direction.
The size of the toughened safety laminate glass is 1680 ×
1030 mm2 with a thickness of 3.2 mm. We use two sheets
of EVA each 460 µm thick. Laminate 1 is covered by a
transparent BS with a thickness of 302 µm. The BS
consists of a layer stack of primer / adhesive / PET /
adhesive / PET / UV protective coating. The composition
of Laminate 2 is equal to Laminate 1 but is left without a
BS. A for electroluminescence transparent and
fluorescent pattern which is applied by markers on the
front side of the glass allows for measuring the laminate
shape by digital image correlation (DIC) and the crack
pattern with electroluminescence (EL) technique without
interferences on the same sample.
2.2 Measurement setup
Figure 1 shows the setup for characterizing the two
PV laminates under mechanical load. We investigate cell
cracks and CIR disruptions by EL measurements (PCO
sensicam) during bending [10]. The shape of the modules
is measured with a DIC [11]. The bending rolls of the 4-
line bending setup have a distance of 1138 mm between
their centers and are placed in front of the laminate glass
whereas the bearing rolls have a distance of 1500 mm
between their centers and are placed behind the laminate.
All rolls have a diameter of 89 mm. We alternately take
EL images and load the laminate. During loading we
measure the force with a load cell (Zwick GmbH/BX1-
EZ005.A1K-001) and the bending roll displacement. We
measure the shape of the laminate by turning on a UV-
array which activates the fluorescent pattern on the glass.
The two cameras of the DIC (isi-sys) use this pattern to
calculate a three dimensional image of the laminate. We
evaluate the curvature of the laminate c = 1/r, where r is
the radius of the front glass surface in between the
bending rolls. During acquisition of the EL images the
UV-array is turned off and so the pattern is transparent
for the EL light. We take photographs of the cell cracks
and cell gaps at certain bending roll displacements.
Figure 1: Schematic draw of the 4-line bending setup.
The laminate is placed between the rolls of the bending
setup. The EL camera is used for CIR and cell breakage
detection. The UV-array activates the fluorescent pattern
on the front glass of the laminate which is used by the
digital image correlation to measure the shape of the
laminate.
2.3 Test procedure
We treat the laminates mechanically with 100 load
cycles by driving the bending rolls backwards.
Afterwards we expose the laminates to 1000 h damp heat
treatment. Subsequently we treat the laminates with
additional 100 load cycles. Initially and after each test
sequence the output power of the laminate is measured by
a flasher (cetis class AAA HALM) with a reproducibility
of ±0.3 % in module power for repeated measurements at
standard test conditions.
We start with a bending roll displacement of 0 mm
where the laminate is flat. In the first cycle we drive with
a speed of 12 mm min1 in steps of 2 mm until we reach
78 mm displacement of the bending rolls and then
backwards in steps of 10 mm to the initial displacement
of 0 mm. EL images are taken at every step, DIC images
every 10 mm bending roll displacement and photographs
initially and at 68 mm at Laminate 1 and 78 mm at
Laminate 2 where the bending forces are the same for
both laminates. In the next 100 cycles we drive in one
step from 0 mm to 88 mm with a speed of 120 mm min1
and in one step back to 0 mm with the same speed.
After the first mechanical treatment we expose the
laminates to 1000 h damp heat treatment (DH, 85% RH /
85 °C). In this environment corrosion of metals
especially at new cracks can take place.
In the end the laminates are again bent in 100 cycles
as before the DH test.
3 RESULTS
3.1 Cell cracks and gap widths at 1st cycle
Before bending, Laminate 1 has 35 cells and
Laminate 2 has 36 cells in the center region between the
bending rolls without cell cracks. The EL analysis shows
that 9 % of the intact cells break in Laminate 1 and 6 %
in Laminate 2 during loading. All cracks are almost
parallel to the bending rolls and end at the cell edges.
Some of the cracks branch two or three times. The digital
image correlation measures the shape of the laminates.
We evaluate a curvature of the laminates and find the
correlation from curvature c to bending roll displacement
dbrd:
c = 3.3×106 mm2 × dbrd. (1)
We measure the cell gap width dgw and cell crack
width dcw on the photographs. Figure 2 shows a
photograph of a part of the crack in Laminate 1 which
arise at a curvature of c = 0.12 m1. We measure the gap
width and crack width in the direction of strain which is
perpendicular to the bending rolls. When the crack
crosses a finger, the fingers are displaced by the
dimension of the crack width which can be measured
with an accuracy of ±20 µm. The direct measurement of
the crack is very dependent on the illumination and
would lead to systematic errors. Figure 2a shows this
crack at c = 0.23 m1 and Figure 2b at c = 0 m1.
Figure 2: Photographs of details of Laminate 1. a) shows
the cell gap and a cell crack at c = 0.23 m1 with a detail
region on the right hand side and b) shows the same
detail region at c = 0 m1. We measure the crack width
dcw perpendicular to the silver fingers. The red lines are
guide to the eye.
Figure 3 shows the change in the cell gap width
dgw=dgw(c)  dgw(c=0) (2)
and the crack width dcw(c) as well as the bending force in
dependence of the curvature of the laminate. The lines
are guide to the eye to connect two related measurements.
The forces to bend the laminates from 0 mm (c = 0 m1)
to 78 mm (c = 0.26 m1) bending roll displacement are
1220 N for Laminate 1 and 1104 N for Laminate 2. In
Laminate 1 the cell gap width increases from
4 mm ± 0.02 mm unloaded to 4.12 mm ± 0.02 mm
loaded. In Laminate 2 the cell gap width increases from
4 mm ± 0.02 mm unloaded to 4.18 mm ± 0.02 mm
loaded. Figure 3 shows the increase in cell crack widths
starting at different curvatures from 0 µm to their cell
crack width at a curvature of c = 0.23 m1 and
c = 0.26 m1 respectively. The cell crack widths in the
loaded case are about a factor of two smaller than the
change in the cell gap widths of the corresponding
laminate.
Laminate 1:
dgw(0.23)-dgw(0))/2  dcw(0.23) (3)
Laminate 2:
dgw(0.26)-dgw(0))/2  dcw(0.26) (4)
Figure 3: Crack width dcw and change in cell gap width
dgw and as well as bending force in dependence of the
curvature c of the laminate with an accuracy of ±40 µm
for the change in gap widths and ±20 µm for the crack
widths. One cracked cell in Laminate 2 has 2 cracks. We
mark the curvature where the stress in the silicon wafer in
this test equals the stress in the silicon in a framed and
clamped module at a homogenous load of 2400 Pa and
5400 Pa as explained in section 4.
3.2 Cell cracks and gap widths after DH
After the DH test we load the laminates again. No
new cracks in the silicon wafer appear. We measure the
already existing cell crack widths of Laminate 1 at the
106th cycle and of Laminate 2 at the 199th cycle. Figure 4
shows the crack width dcw(c) in dependence of the
curvature of the laminate. The lines are guide to the eye
to connect each individual crack. The cracks close
completely after each cycle within the measurement
accuracy except one crack which has a crack width of
(8±6) µm. Some cracks show a hysteresis. The thick lines
are linear fits of the average crack width of each
laminate. The average crack width of Laminate 2 without
a BS increases by about a factor of three more than the
crack width of Laminate 1. The absolute crack widths are
smaller than in the 1st cycle.
We also evaluate the change of the cell gap width
dgw with increasing curvature c = 0 m1 to c = 0.29 m1
at different positions in Laminate 2 at the 199th cycle.
The average of 12 vertical cell gap changes dgw parallel
to the bending rolls is 5±50 µm and the average of 12
horizontal cell gap changes dgw perpendicular to the
bending rolls in the direction of stress is 160±60 µm. The
vertical changes are 0 within the measurement accuracy
as expected since no stress is applied in this direction.
The horizontal changes are in agreement with the results
of the first cycle.
Figure 4: Crack width in dependence of the curvature c
of the laminate with an accuracy of ±6 µm. In Laminate 1
three cracks are plotted in gray colors and in Laminate 2
two cracks are plotted in red colors. The thick lines are
linear fits of the average crack width of each laminate.
We mark the curvature where the stress in the silicon in
this test equals the stress in the silicon in a framed and
clamped module at a homogenous load of 2400 Pa and
5400 Pa as explained in section 4.
3.3 Cell interconnect ribbon breakage
After tens of cycles we can measure a change in the
EL intensity in part of some cells under mechanical load.
Figure 5 shows a detail of an EL-image of Laminate 1 at
c = 0.29 m1 at the 93rd cycle of loading. The right cell
has a homogeneous EL intensity as most of the other
cells. The center cell and the left cell are inhomogeneous
in EL intensity. The graph shows a red line scan for the
inhomogeneous EL-Intensity of the left cell and a black
line scan for the homogeneous EL-Intensity of the right
cell. In the left cell 2/3 of the cell area is decreased in EL
intensity and in the center cell 1/3 of the cell area is
decreased in EL intensity. After 100 cycles we can
observe 7 cases where 1/3 of the cell area is decreased in
EL-intensity in Laminate 1. The current in Laminate 1 is
8.3 A at 60 V.
In Laminate 2, a current of Ioc = 0±0.01 A flows at a
voltage of Voc = 60 V through the laminate. Assuming
every resistance of the CIR in the center region is
increased by the same factor the resistance is increased
by at least:
Ric = Voc/Ioc/Ngaps×Nbusbar = 429 , (5)
Where Ngaps = 42 is the number of horizontal cell gaps
with CIRs in the tested region and Nbusbar = 3 is the
number of parallel CIRs on one cell. Due to this high
resistance, the cells of Laminate 2 have an EL-Intensity
of 0±5 counts/s, which is in the range of the noise of the
measurement. Figure 6 shows a photograph of a CIR
after the 100 cycles of Laminate 1 and Laminate 2. The
CIR of Laminate 1 is plastically deformed, but not
broken whereas the CIR in Laminate 2 is plastically
deformed and shows a crack. After unloading both
laminates, the EL intensity is the same as before loading
within the measurement accuracy and the current is 8.3 A
again at open circuit voltage.
Figure 5: Detail of an EL-image of Laminate 1 at a
curvature of c = 0.29 m1 at the 93rd cycle of loading. The
graph shows a red line scan for the inhomogeneous EL-
image and a black line scan for the homogeneous EL-
image.
Figure 6: a) Photograph of Laminate 1 at c = 0 m1 and
b) of Laminate 2 at c = 0.06 m1 after 100 load cycles.
The CIR of Laminate 1 is plastically deformed, but not
broken whereas the CIR in Laminate 2 is plastically
deformed and shows a crack marked in the photograph.
Figure 7 shows EL images of Laminate 2 in the unloaded
status. Figure 7a shows the Laminate after 100 load
cycles and Figure 7b after exposing the laminate to
1000 h DH. After 100 cycles the cells show a
homogeneous EL intensity. The CIRs still have the initial
resistance. After the DH test 80 % of the cells show a
decreased EL-Intensity in at least 1/3 of the total cell
area. This is due to an increased series resistance of the
CIRs. In Laminate 1 only 19 % of the cells have a
decreased EL-Intensity.
3.4 Output power of laminates
We measure the output power of the laminates before
and after each procedure. Table I shows the efficiencies
of Laminate 1 and Laminate 2 at each status. The initial
efficiency is the same for both laminates. It does not
change after the 100 load cycles for Laminate 1.
Unfortunately the measurement for Laminate 2 is
missing. But the EL image in Figure 7a suggests no
significant resistive losses. After the DH test the
efficiency decreases by 2.2 % in Laminate 1 but by
10.3 % in Laminate 2.
Figure 7: EL images of Laminate 2 in unloaded status. a)
after 100 load cycles and b) after 1000 h DH test. The
two black bars in a) are the bending rolls. The EL
intensity is relative homogeneous. The red box in b)
marks the area between the bending rolls. 80 % of the
cells show a decreased EL-Intensity after the DH test in
at least 1/3 of the total cell area.
Table I: Laminate efficiencies in unloaded status.
Laminate 1 [%] Laminate 2 [%]
Initial 13.6 13.6
After 100th cycle 13.6 -
After DH 13.3 12.2
4 SIMULATIONS
To correlate the mechanical test in IEC 61215 for
wind and snow load conditions to the load situation of
our 4 line bending setup we compare the simulated
mechanical stress in laminated solar cells of both
mechanically simulated load tests. We use the finite
element program Abaqus. We use the same laminate
geometries and material properties for both simulated
tests (e.g. viscoelasticity for EVA) and neglect CIRs and
cell metallization. We simulate the mechanical properties
time dependent.
For the IEC 61215 simulation we additionally use a
standard frame. We fix the frame at standard position (in
the center of the longer half side). We simulate a
homogeneous wind load of 2400 Pa on the front side of
the module at 0 °C in different steps of 10, 1 or 0.1 s.
Afterwards we increase the homogeneous load to
5400 Pa in a step of 24 h for the simulation of snow load.
We extract the max. first principle stress of the solar cells
neglecting stress peaks of the size of one mesh point. The
results are shown in Figure 8. At 5400 Pa the maximum
deflection of the center of the module is 18.7 mm which
we observe for stiff frames experimentally.
Afterwards we simulate our 4 line bending setup also
with the same laminate model, without frame and with a
temperature of 22 °C which are the test conditions. Here
we correlate the curvature with the max. first principle
stress of the solar cells depicted in Figure 8.
Figure 8 shows that comparable stresses in the silicon
are present at 2400 Pa module load and a curvature
between c = 0.023 m1 and c = 0.026 m1. The stresses
are also comparable at 5400 Pa module load and a
curvature of c = 0.05 m1. The curvatures of the
corresponding loads are marked in Figures 3, 4 and 9.
Figure 8: Max. first principle stresses for a framed
module under homogeneous load marked with gray
circles and a black triangle and for the laminates at a
certain curvature in the 4 line bending marked with red
squares. The red dashed line shows the linear fit of the
curvature to stress correlation. The red-black dashed lines
are guide to the eye for determining the curvature for the
corresponding load.
5 DISCUSSION
5.1 Impact of cell crack width on crack resistance
The BS is under tensile stress during loading of the
laminates which leads to higher forces at the same
bending roll displacement in Laminate 1 with a BS
compared to Laminate 2 without a BS. The cell plane is
under tensile stress as well and thus the cells and cell
parts drift apart from each other. This drift effect is
decreased in Laminate 1 compared to Laminate 2 since
the tensile stress of the BS in Laminate 1 is partly
transferred to the cells and cell parts. This effect can be
observed experimentally at the cell crack width after DH
shown in Figure 4. The average crack width of
Laminate 1 increases by a factor of three less than the
average crack width of Laminate 2. This fact is extremely
important since the crack resistance increases with
increasing crack width.
Käsewieter et al. measured the crack resistance in
dependence of the crack width during bending of a mini
laminate [12]. The sample had the same layers compared
to the laminates in this work. The authors measured
electrical resistance of the front and rear metallization
separately from each other by contacting the solar cell on
both sides of the crack at the front and the rear side. The
front resistance increased from its initial value from a
crack width of 3 µm to a complete insulation for 7 µm
crack width.
Figure 4 shows that one crack in Laminate 2 is even
larger than 7 µm in the unloaded status and the others are
7 µm wide at curvatures from c = 0.05 m1. In average
the crack width of 7 µm is reached at smaller curvatures
in Laminate 1 than in Laminate 2. In these laminates the
crack does not cause any power loss since all cracks are
perpendicular to the busbars due to the stress in the
direction of the busbars. But cracks in clamped and
framed modules have several directions. From the
simulation result in Section 4 we know that curvatures of
up to c = 0.05 m1 correspond to homogeneous loads of
up to 5400 Pa in a clamped and framed module. However
the max. first principle stress is strongly dependent on the
exact module layout and material properties. Sander et al.
[5] published 90 MPa stress at 5400 Pa loading. This
stress corresponds to a curvature of c = 0.16 m1. This
means that the observed cracks would insulate cell parts
in a framed module under snow or even wind load
conditions. This effect will be observable at lower loads
when the BS of the module is mechanically weak, e.g.
after UV-degradation of the back sheet [9].
5.2 Correlation between crack width and cell gap width
The distance of the centers of two adjacent cells dcc is
a factor of two larger than the distance of the centers of
two cell parts dccp which are separated by one vertical
crack:
dcc = 2 × dccp (6)
We assume that the cells are not strained significantly
due to their high Young’s modulus compared to the
encapsulant and the large cross section compared to the
CIRs. For this the change in the distance of the centers of
two adjacent cells is equal to the change in the cell gap
width
dcc = dgw (7)
and the change in the distance of two cell parts is equal to
the change in cell crack width
dccp = dcw. (8)
We apply a strain  to the laminate. Therefore dcc and dccp
are also strained:
dcc = 2 × dccp. (9)
Inserting (7) and (8) in (9) we finally get
dgw = 2 × dcw. (10)
With this model we can explain that the change in cell
gap width increases by a factor of two compared to the
cell crack width which we also observe experimentally
shown in Figure 3.
5.3 Cell Interconnect ribbon breakage
The CIR is stretched during bending. It is supported
by the cell in the soldered region. The unsoldered length
of the CIR is about 20 mm from cell to cell. For this the
strain of the CIR is
ic = dgw / 20 mm. (11)
With the data from Figure 3 this is 0.006 for Laminate 1
(c = 0.23 m1) and 0.009 for Laminate 2 (c = 0.26 m1).
In a tensile test of the CIR we measure the force against
the strain. At a strain of 0.006 we analyze a stress of
ic = 121 MPa and at a strain of 0.009 a stress of
ic = 130 MPa with the assumption of a constant cross
section area of the CIRs during the tensile test (see
Figure 9). These stresses are higher than the yield stress
of the CIRs of Rp,0,2 = 111 MPa where the CIR deforms
plastically. With the measured Young´s modulus
Eic = (60 ± 5) GPa of the CIR we calculate a relative
permanent elongation of the CIR dic after unloading with
the relation
dic = ic ic/Eic (12)
In Laminate 1 dic = 0.0042 and in Laminate 2 dic = 0.007.
This permanent elongation leads to a kink in the CIR in
the unloaded status of the laminate. During the next
cycles the CIRs are unkinked and kinked again which can
lead to fatigue breakage. Since the relative permanent
elongation in Laminate 2 is 1.7 times larger than in
Laminate 1 this leads to many fatigue breakages in the
CIRs in Laminate 2 which ends in a break resistance of at
least 429  (see section 3). Since the initial series
resistance of the CIR in the unsoldered region of 20 mm
is 0.0015 , we conclude that the CIRs are broken, which
can be seen in Figure 6b. This would lead to a complete
power loss of the module under mechanical load.
Figure 7a shows the initial EL intensities of the laminate
in the unloaded status. Figure 7b shows that after the DH
test the EL intensities are reduced. This means that the
CIRs corrode at the cracked interface which leads to an
increase in resistance. The power measurement in Table I
also shows a reduction of laminate efficiency of 10.3 %
in Laminate 2 whereas it is only reduced by 2.2 % in
Laminate 1. This shows the importance of the BS which
keeps the cell gap width smaller under mechanical load.
This leads to a smaller permanent elongation of the CIR
and less fatigue breakage. Of course this effect reduces
with reducing the maximum curvature of the laminates.
In these experiments the curvature was larger than in
PV-modules simulated with homogeneous loads of
5400 Pa in order to create more cracks aiming for better
statistics.
Figure 9: Tensile test measurement of the used CIR in
blue. The black and red curves are the calculated curves
in the corresponding laminates. We mark the strain where
the stress in the silicon wafer in this test equals the stress
in the silicon in a framed and clamped module at a
homogenous load of 2400 Pa and 5400 Pa as explained in
section 4. The black lines belong to Laminate 1 and the
red lines to Laminate 2.
The increase in series resistance in Laminate 1 can be
calculated from the line scans in Figure 5. Since the EL
intensity IEL and the voltage V are in the following
dependence with the thermal voltage VT:
ln(IEL1/IEL2) = (V1  V2) × VT (13)
we can calculate voltage drops on a solar cell [13]. The
EL-Intensity in the homogeneous cell is about
1200 counts/s whereas the minimum EL intensity in the
inhomogeneous cell is 700 counts/s. This is a voltage
drop of 14 mV. Since one third of the current flows over
each of the three CIRs of the cell, this corresponds to a
change in resistance of R = 0.005 . For this the
resistance of the CIR increases by a factor of 3.4
compared to the initial resistance of 0.0015 . This
increase leads to a calculated module power loss of about
2.2 % under mechanical load. After unloading the
laminates the CIRs have contact again and no resistive
losses are observable in the EL image and in the power
measurement. After the DH test the power measurements
show a reduction of 2.2 % in the unloaded status which
equals the calculated power loss under mechanical load
before DH. This means that the partly fatigue broken
CIRs are corroded at the crack interface.
Other tensile test measurements show no hardening
of the CIR after cycling. For this the stress in the CIRs
and the partly transferred stress to the cells is not higher
during subsequent cycles and therefore the CIR induced
cell cracks appear only in the first load cycle.
6 CONCLUSION
The tensile stress of the BS after laminate production
partly transfers to the cells reducing the widths of the cell
crack and the change in cell gap. Since the crack
resistance increases with crack width, a mechanically
weakened BS leads to nearly infinite crack resistances at
lower mechanical loads. In the investigated laminates
they do not cause any power loss due to the direction of
the crack. If such cracks have a direction in parallel to a
busbar, they insulate cell parts in a framed module under
snow or even wind load conditions if a BS is missing or
the BS loses its mechanical integrity by e.g. UV
degradation.
Since the permanent elongation of the CIR increases
with increasing change in cell gap width a missing BS
leads to stronger kinks and for this more fatigue breakage
of CIRs. After the corrosion of the broken CIRs during
the exposure to DH, the efficiency is reduced by 10.3 %
compared to 2.2 % when using a BS.
An intact BS under tensile stress reduces the risk of
CIR breakage and tends to reduce the cell crack
resistance and therefore the risk of module power loss.
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