Current Entries

CVD chamber cleaning using fluorinated gases has been commonplace in semiconductor manufacturing for decades and proven to be a fast and effective alternative to wet cleaning. This process has been scaled up to deal with larger process chambers, first in TFT-LCD panel manufacture, and lately for large area thin film solar cell manufacture.
Many of the gases currently used such as Nitrogen Trifluoride (NF3) and Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6) have high global warming potentials (GWP) [for example: 17,200 for NF3 and 23,900 for SF6]. In line with the industry need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, fluorine gas (F2) has been identified as an effective alternative, having zero GWP. Restrictions exist however on large scale cylinder filling and transport for fluorine, hence it cannot be used in a typical thin film PV fab where annual gas consumption is very high.
On-site generation of F2 gas has been developed by Linde as a viable alternative, with scaleable plants available to deal with large turnkey PV production lines. Developed in the late 1990s, this proven technology has been installed at more than 20 semiconductor, LCD and solar cell production sites, including Toshiba Matsushita Display, Samsung Electronics, and LG Display.   Chamber cleaning with Linde on-site generated F2 gives thin-film manufacturers reduced cost per Watt and provides the end user with a reduced carbon footprint PV module.

With this innovation the Oerlikon Solar KAI 1200 PECVD system can deposit amorphous and microcrystalline absorber layers faster and at better quality resulting in a significant reduction of the production cost of silicon thin-film solar modules.

LSS1200 laser scribing system for the high precision patterning of thin-film PV modules.

TCO 1200 Production Reactor deposits a novel and adjustable Transparent Conductive Oxide (TCO) film for the fabrication of Thin Film Photovoltaic Modules. The TCO 1200 utilizes technology originally from the Semiconductor Industry and is based on Low Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition (LPCVD) at very low temperature. The TCO 1200 allows adjustment of film morphology and conductivity to match ideal parameters for the PV Absorber stack while utilizing an innovative ZnOx film composition with superior light trapping v standard SnOx films.

High density of PV supply chain world-wide. Almost 16% of world-wide production capacity is located in Solar Valley. Rapid project realisation with a skilled and flexible labor force. Houses the Center for Silicon Photovoltaics.

Veeco manufactures equipment that is used by solar cell manufacturers to produce high-efficient, low-cost thin film CIGS (copper indium gallium (di)selenide) solar panels in mass production.  Veeco’s PV-Series™ Thermal Deposition Sources are capable of depositing Cu, In, Ga and Se across substrates up to 1.2m wide that enables high volume manufacturing of thin film solar modules.
Veeco is the only manufacturer of production deposition thermal sources to coat glass or flexible sheets to produce low cost CIGS solar panels on flexible or rigid substrates as shown in the figure below.

It is about the lamination of glass-glass modules (thin film modules) onto several openings (done in the 3-step process). The line is called Ypsator©.

The system supplier for photovoltaic module lines, Reis Robotics, has implemented a newly developed laser soldering procedure for practical use with several customers.

In the stinger machines TT900/1200 we offer the most flexible soldering technology for solar cells: Laser soldering. It is flexible and controlled in terms of: temperature/power/position of energy/implementation and speed of energy.

ChemGuard refill technology (CG1000) has been developed by Air Products to substantially reduce c-Si cell manufacturing costs.  The system eliminates the need to replace empty chemical (POCl3) containers residing inside the diffusion furnaces, which use this chemical to dope the Si wafer with N-type material.