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What is the meaning of this croped part? Why do they crop it, rather than let it be full square?

PhysicsSolvesAll
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the monocrystalline cells are thinly sliced off cylindrically-grown single crystals that look like logs. Each wafer thus produced is hence a circular disc. To make the resulting solar cell function properly, its active area must be square so the rounded edges of the wafer get sawn off so the wafers can be packed together as closely as possible during bulk processing. The chamfered corners are left.

niels nielsen
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  • Why do they cut the edges? Why don't they leave the sharp edges be? I really do not understand please explain. Why isn't it square like polycrystalline cells? Do they remain big this way? Would it be smaller if it was cut perfectly square? – PhysicsSolvesAll May 21 '21 at 17:36
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    I suspect what niels is implying at is that there is one cell per wafer/slice from a round ingot (not many cells per slice as might be the case for integrated circuits), in which case a single square with rounded corners could use up more of the circular area on an the cross section of a round ingot while still be square enough to tessellate. – DKNguyen May 21 '21 at 18:37
  • @DKNguyen, yes that is the point. – niels nielsen May 22 '21 at 00:47