Silicon Innovation Award
1366 TECHNOLOGIES Direct Wafer Technology
CURRENT WAFER manufacturing is a multi-step, energy- and capital-intensive process that limits cell efficiency potential for manufacturers due to bulk quality defects that emerge in the wafer growth process.
1366 Technologies of Lexington, Mass., is a startup with VC funding and a DOE loan guarantee. The company’s technology falls in the “kerfless wafer” category. The aim is to disrupt the traditional way that silicon-based photovoltaic wafers are fabricated.
Direct Wafer is a one-step, kerfless wafer- making process that has the potential to revolutionize wafer manufacturing. By delivering higher quality “drop-in” replacement multi-crystalline wafers with unique surface features, 1366’s Direct Wafer technology forms a standard, 156mm multi-crystalline wafer directly from molten silicon.
The semi-continuous, high-throughput process eliminates silicon waste, resulting in a more powerful, low-cost wafer.
Direct Wafer produces one wafer at a time so each wafer sees identical processing conditions, enabling more spatially uniform wafers with lower dislocation densities and impurities.
Direct Wafer™ produces wafers in a controlled, environment, reducing wafer- to-wafer quality variations.
The tighter distribution simplifies manufacturing operations and product offerings, reducing inventory costs and sales challenges.
MANZ AG
PERC Production Solutions
To meet global market’s soaring demand for high-efficiency solar cells and lower manufacturing costs, Manz AG offers industry-leading solutions for crystalline solar-cell (cSi) production which yields high conversion efficiencies of up to 20.5%. The new-generation production technology deploys Manz’s VCS 1200 vertical vacuum coating system to deposit dielectric passivation layers on the rear of cells, together with the firm’s LAS 2400 laser ablation technology, enabling cell manufacturers to achieve large-scale production of high-efficiency cSi solar cells at lowest Cost of Ownership.
The fully automated and maintenance- friendly tools boast a smaller footprint and improved efficiency over competitors’ systems. They can be used for both mono- and multi-crystalline solar cells. Manz offers customers the necessary equipment and processing technology to convert standard cell production lines to manufacture the higher-efficiency PERC cells. Manz’s VCS 1200 system uses a completely new technology for vertical processing, with a throughput of 1,200 wafers/hour.
Thanks to its powerful plasma source and a new carrier system, the coating process leaves no pin marks or flakes on the wafers – a problem of many competitors’ systems. In addition, VCS 1200 enables single-side deposition of PECVD-layers without wrap-around of deposition on the other side. Manz’s high performance PECVD process technology achieves optimum reproducibility and the industry’s highest degree of cell efficiency and uniformity.
Alongside the VCS 1200 system, Manz’s 48
www.solar-international.net I Issue IV 2014
LAS 2400 laser ablation system provides a simple, precise and high-throughput solution for local contact opening of rear side passivation layers. Being a one-stop process, laser ablation offers the lowest cost of ownership for this step in cell production and offers safe wafer handling with the industry’s lowest breakage rates.
MEI LLC
PuraWet Processing System For Polysilicon
THE PURA wet processing system is a fully automated, robotic closed-loop system that combines an energy- and space-efficient etch and rinse system with our new FlashDry cold dry system. FlashDry uses no thermal energy for drying. MEI’s Pura wet processing system is a self-cleaning, inline, configurable, automated, linear batch system made for high throughput at low cost. The Pura wet processing system is designed for dry-in and dry-out polysilicon processing.
The MEI Pura silicon chunk cleaning system is designed for removal of organic and metallic contamination found on silicon chunks, granular (FBR) or fines from the manufacturing process. Cleaning or etching silicon fines, granular polysilicon or chunks requires a high throughput wet etch system with good process control and outstanding drying capabilities to achieve optimal purity. MEI’s automated system for chunk polysilicon cleaning removes silicon-
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