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Solaicx continuous Czochralski (CZ) manufacturing process
INNOVATIVE ASPECT
Before Solaicx, the solar industry was wholly reliant on a precision manufacturing process developed for the silicon chip industry – a process too expensive to be practical for the solar industry in the long term. Solaicx is the only company that has successfully changed this critical process from a precision manufacturing business into a materials handling business, dramatically reducing costs in order to enable the long-term success of the solar industry.
According to Dick Swanson, chairman of SunPower Corporation and a solar industry visionary, Solaicx accomplished “in just one year what many corporations had been attempting for the previous 20,” with its continuous CZ process. Solaicx offers advantages in these key areas:
Uniform Axial Resistivity for Higher Power Output
Solaicx is the only ingot grower in the industry to provide ingots with uniform axial resistivity throughout the entire length of the ingot. This feature not only eases the manufacturing process, but also creates significant solar conversion efficiencies and cost advantages for solar cell manufacturers.
Due to the variability in resistivity from traditionally grown ingots, cell manufacturers have been forced to set their specifications for very wide ranges of resistivity. A complex sorting process is required at the end of a cell completion line, resulting in several categories of cells with a wide range of power outputs. The variation in resistivity has caused cell manufacturers to incur the cost of these complex sorting systems and lose margin from the lower-performing cells.
With uniform resistivity, the sorting step is greatly simplified by limiting the process to only a few categories, all of which produce relatively high power output. Now, with Solaicx providing the industry with uniform material, engineers can optimize cell designs for improved power output and solar conversion efficiency. Improved cell efficiency has a leveraged cost reduction effect across all factors of manufacturing and application, which flows downstream to create savings for module manufactures and ultimately end-users.
Rapidly Reconfigurable Machines to Smoothly Match Market Demands
Solaicx’s manufacturing equipment was designed from the outset to quickly reconfigure and accommodate a range of customer specifications in wafer size. Machines used by the competition either cannot be modified in this way or cannot be modified at all. This foresight by Solacix created a manufacturing process that will remain viable as the industry transitions and matures, achieving a strong competitive advantage over those still using semiconductor methods.
For example, during the peak of the silicon shortage, 125mm ingots were in demand. Currently, the solar industry has shifted market demand to 200mm seemingly overnight, leaving the ingot growing industry with machines incapable of altering the diameter. Companies must purchase entirely new capital equipment or revamp complete lines of machines. Solaicx has vastly improved this costly and lengthy turnover process and is able to respond quickly to meet market demand.
High Throughput, Low Cost
Traditional methods produce one megawatt/month per machine. Solaicx has set a dramatic precedent of five megawatts/month per machine. This presents a significant cost advantage for Solaicx’s customers.
Another important cost advantage of the continuous CZ process lies in the low labor requirement relative to the output; automation and speed enables fewer labor-hours per megawatt generated. Solaicx needs just one person working four machines, while competitors need one person for each machine. In other words, the Solaicx method needs only one factory worker to produce 20 megawatts/month while its competitors need twenty people to produce the same output.
BENEFITS
As outlined in the above information, Solaicx offers significant cost advantages with its continuous CZ method in several areas:
- Better polysilicon utilization – by recycling nearly all excess silicon.
- Reduced cycle time – approximately by half of the traditional time.
- Higher quality output enables higher conversion efficiency cells - cell manufacturers can optimize cell designs for improved power output and solar conversion efficiencies while eliminating lost margin from the lower-performing cells thanks to the uniform axial resistivity displayed by Solaicx products.
- Reduced labor requirement - computer controlled ingot growth, diameter control and resistivity control reduces skilled labor requirements.
- Rapidly reconfigurable machines – lead to less downtime and capital expenditures when rapid demand shifts occur in the solar industry.
All of the above cost-saving benefits of the Solaicx system have helped their customers, nine out of the world’s 15 largest solar cell manufacturers, reduce their costs, pushing the savings even further downstream. As a private company, Solaicx is unable to disclose financial information to support this award submission.
