I must not understand how solar panels are made. Or how particle accelerators work? And

我一定不明白太陽能電池板是如何製造的。或者粒子加速器如何工作？還有

yes, there's a key, unglamorous step that – unless you're fairly familiar with solar

是的，有一個關鍵的、不光彩的步驟--除非你對太陽能相當熟悉

manufacturing technology (which I'm not) – you probably wouldn't think of, and

製造技術（我不是）--你可能不會想到，而

it's in this step where a particle accelerator turns out to be useful: cutting silicon into

粒子加速器正是在這一步驟中發揮了作用：將硅切割成

the really thin wafers that are the key component of a solar panel.

真正薄的硅片是太陽能電池板的關鍵組成部分。

However, even this wasn't at all what I first thought, which was something like slicing

然而，即使是這樣，也完全不是我最初所想的那樣，也就是類似於切片的東西。

through the crystal with a super powerful particle beam. That sounds awesome, but the

用超級強大的粒子束穿過水晶。這聽起來真棒，但

actual technique is much less insane and much more clever.

實際的技術沒有那麼瘋狂，而是更加巧妙。

Ok, so a typical solar panel cell begins as a carefully grown cylinder of silicon atoms

好的，所以一個典型的太陽能板電池開始是一個精心培育的硅原子圓柱體。

arranged in a regular crystal lattice, which are then trimmed and cut into wafer-thin…wafers.

在規則的晶格中排列，然後被修剪並切割成晶圓般薄的...晶圓。

Some of which retain curved corners as hallmarks of the original cylindrical crystal.

其中一些保留了彎曲的角，作為原始圓柱形水晶的標誌。

Then the wafers get covered with other metals, anti-reflective coatings and electrodes, and

然後，晶圓被其他金屬、抗反射塗層和電極覆蓋，並且

so on, to be able to capture the sun's energy – but the part we want to focus on is the

等等，以便能夠捕獲太陽的能量 - 但我們要關注的部分是

cutting. Because when you cut something with a saw, like silicon wafers normally are, there

切割。因為當你用鋸子切割東西時，像硅片通常是這樣，有

are two problems: one, you can't cut a slice too thin otherwise it might get broken – typical

有兩個問題：第一，你不能把片子切得太薄，否則可能會被折斷--典型的

solar panel wafers are cut to about 0.15 millimeters. And two, unlike a knife which cuts by separating

太陽能電池板晶片被切割到約0.15毫米。第二，與刀子不同，刀子是通過分離來切割的

and wedging two pieces of material apart, a saw cuts with teeth that gouge and eat away

將兩塊材料夾開，鋸子用鋸齒切割，挖出並吃掉材料。

at the material, turning it into saw-dust and leaving a gap called a kerf. In the case

在材料上，將其變成鋸末並留下一個稱為切口的間隙。在這種情況下

of silicon wafers, the gap is roughly the same width as the wafers themselves, which

在硅片上，間隙的寬度與硅片本身的寬度大致相同，這就意味著

means about half of the original material goes to waste!

意味著約有一半的原始材料被浪費掉了!

This is where particle accelerators come in: not as a high powered ablative cutting particle

這就是粒子加速器的作用：不是作為一種高能燒蝕切割粒子

beam, but by taking advantage of the physics of crystals. If instead you shoot protons

晶體的物理特性，但是通過利用晶體的物理特性。如果你改成發射質子

with a certain energy at the flat face of the silicon cylinder, those protons will embed

在硅圓柱體的平面上具有一定的能量，這些質子將嵌入到

themselves into the silicon. The depth depends on how much energy they have, and the thinner

自己進入硅。深度取決於它們有多少能量，而越薄的

you want, the less energy they take, so you can easily pick something super thin. But

你想要的東西，它們需要的能量就越少，所以你可以很容易地挑選一些超級薄的東西。但是

whatever thickness you choose, once inside the silicon crystal lattice, the protons kind

無論你選擇什麼樣的厚度，一旦進入硅晶格，質子就會變成一種

of push it apart and create stress; if you heat the whole thing up, a wafer will break

如果你把整個東西加熱，晶圓就會破裂。

right off, cleanly cleaving along the crystal lattice lines where the protons were. So,

就這樣，沿著質子所在的晶格線乾淨地劈開。所以。

if after the protons are embedded, but before the heating, you glue this proto-wafer onto

如果在質子嵌入之後，但在加熱之前，你把這個原晶圓粘在

a piece of glass or plastic, and then heat it up, you end up with a nice thin wafer of

一塊玻璃或塑膠，然後將其加熱，你最終會得到一個漂亮的薄片。

silicon attached to a durable (and possibly flexible) material, with no waste silicon

連接到耐用（可能是柔性）材料上的硅，沒有浪費硅。

whatsoever. To me, this is clever physics engineering!

無論怎樣。對我來說，這就是聰明的物理工程!

Of course, a particle accelerator is much more expensive than a saw, so there must be

當然，粒子加速器比鋸子要貴得多，所以必須有

some upsides to it – the biggest is that, by using significantly less silicon per wafer

它有一些好處--最大的好處是，由於每塊晶圓使用的硅量大大減少

and not losing any silicon in the cutting process, it's possible to justify using

而且在切割過程中不會損失任何硅，是以有可能證明使用

much more expensive silicon that's better at capturing sunlight, meaning the resultant

昂貴得多的硅能更好地捕捉陽光，這意味著由此產生的

solar panels for a given power output are smaller and need less other material to make

在一定的功率輸出下，太陽能電池板更小，需要更少的其他材料來製造。

them and hold them up, hence they're cheaper. Hopefully enough cheaper to make up for the

他們，並把他們舉起來，是以他們更便宜。希望能便宜到足以彌補

extra costs of using a particle accelerator to part silicon!

使用粒子加速器分割硅的額外費用!

The company that's trying to use the particle-accelerator technology I talked about in this video to

試圖利用我在這段視頻中談到的粒子加速器技術來實現的公司

make solar cells on a commercial scale, this company is called Rayton Solar. This is a

在商業規模上製造太陽能電池，這家公司叫Rayton Solar。這是一家

challenging and expensive endeavor and they're looking for investors, so they sponsored this

他們正在尋找投資者，所以他們贊助了這個項目。

video to get the word out - startengine.com/startup/rayton-solar. I'm not going to make any endorsement – I

視頻，讓大家知道這個消息 - startengine.com/startup/rayton-solar。我不打算做任何認可--我

mean, I'm neither an investment expert, nor a solar industry expert – but I do believe

我的意思是，我既不是投資專家，也不是太陽能行業專家--但我確實相信

strongly that we need both political and technological solutions to secure our planet's energy

強烈認為我們需要政治和技術解決方案來確保我們星球的能源安全

future, so I'm happy to help Rayton reach a broader audience to help give them a chance

未來，所以我很高興能幫助雷頓公司接觸到更廣泛的閱聽人，幫助他們有機會

for this clever idea to succeed, and I'm making a small investment myself. Hopefully

為這個聰明的想法獲得成功，我自己也做了一點投資。希望如此

they'll end up being one of the many many pieces that come together to provide a civilized

他們最終會成為許多許多碎片中的一個，共同提供一個文明的

long-term future for humanity on earth.

地球上人類的長期未來。