Performance Computation of Modified Spin Coater via Taguchi Method for Coating of Solar Cells for high speed optical Networks

Abstract

Spin coating was used to produce thin coatings on moderately flat substrates. The coating material solution was dumped onto the substrate and turned off at a high velocity in the range of 1000–8000 rpm, leaving a uniform layer. The ultimate thickness of the deposited film was determined by the angular speed, solution viscosity, and spinning time. The advantages of spin-coating include the ability to achieve very fine, fine, and uniform coverage; however, the problem with large samples is a drawback. In this paper, we propose a fine-tuning technique for a modified spin-coating device to coat a zinc oxide (ZnO) solution on a solar cell for increasing the efficiency of the solar cell. We examined nine samples prepared using different parametric conditions, such as the spinning speed, spinning time, and quantity of solution. The spinning speed was set as 1000, 1500, and 2000 rpm. Increasing the evaporation rate instantly in the spin coater resulted in a smooth and uniform thin film. The surface of the layer and the availability of the solution were examined using scanning electron microscopy. To determine the optimal process parameters of the spin coater, the Taguchi method was used. By studying the main effects plot of the signal-to-noise ratio, the optimal settings of the parameters were obtained: a spinning time of 3 s, spinning speed of 2000 rpm, and ZnO solution quantity of 5 µL yielded the desired thickness of 2.4 µm and good uniformity. The experimental results, process parameters, and response parameters were investigated via an analysis of variance. After the solar cell was coated with the modified spin-coating device, its efficiency was 5.4%.