Patent ID: 8318239

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a solar cell, comprising: providing a continuous flexible solar cell structure, wherein continuous flexible solar cell structure includes a back portion having a substrate and a contact layer and a front portion having an absorber layer and a transparent conductive layer; advancing a section of the continuous flexible solar cell structure over a flat surface of a platform; determining a process area on the front portion, the process area being less than 20% of the section of the continuous flexible solar cell structure; applying an input signal to the process area; sensing an output signal from the process area by a detector; processing the output signal sensed by the detector to detect a shunt defect in the front portion in the process area, wherein the step of processing the output signal includes determining the position of the shunt defect that has been detected; passivating the defect by applying an insulator only onto a localized area of the shunt defect, wherein the step of passivating comprises injecting an insulating ink onto localized area of the shunt defect and curing the insulating ink by one of ultraviolet radiation and heat; and depositing a conductive grid pattern only within the process area after the step of passivating the shunt defect.