Interview
New products
industry-leading front and back side silver customize formulations for customers support centers, equipment and engineers
pastes. who work directly with us. This gives us are in the major markets and can draw
many exclusive product modifications that from the experiences of our thick film
Your background is from the thick- optimize the performance of wafers which engineers. Although Solar is a relatively
film division. You were also a past- are not standardized. We just released a new Industry, printing and firing processes
president of IMAPS. How much of new formulation in August and are getting have been used by the microelectronics
this experience guided you into your excellent feedback already. Our strategy of industry for many years. Our scientists and
present position? continuous and incremental improvement engineers are a resource for areas that do
has been a benefit to our customers. not deal with our products directly as their
We are all the sum of our experiences. personal experiences are broad.
When I was elected to be
president of ISHM, now What resources do you
IMAPS, I had the chance
“Heraeus does not allow us to give out sales
invest in research and
to travel worldwide,
meet many of my current
or volume information, but I can tell you
development?
industry friends and
that we surpassed the entire volume of our
R&D is our single biggest
contacts, and lead an investment. Efficiency
industry that was at its
40-year-old thick film business unit in the
improvements with new
peak. At the time, the
first months of existence.”
products will make the
microelectronics industry industry more competitive.
was expanding fast in Asia, This isn’t just paste, but I’m
and I spent a good deal of focused on paste products.
time there. I see the same happening now What is your current average monthly We fund research projects at academic
in the solar industry. The difference is the volume, and is scalability to volume an institutions like Georgia Institute of
solar growth opportunities in the US and important factor? Technology and Fraunhofer ISE. These are
Europe. What I learned is current success very valuable to us, and we will continue
doesn’t mean future success. Being smart We produce many tons of Ag paste each in the future to fund these. Heraeus is a
is important, but being flexible and quick month. Heraeus does not allow us to technology company and uses innovation
is essential. give out sales or volume information, as a market entrance technique. Our
but I can tell you that we surpassed the research group has developed a series of
Silver metallization paste is all about entire volume of our 40-year-old thick products that have made us successful and
efficiency. What features of your film business unit in the first months of there will be more to come.
SOL953 front side paste delivers existence. Scalability is very important,
greater efficiency than other suppliers and our engineering and operations What key developments in the solar
in the field? groups work well together to minimize race excite you at the moment?
scale-up time and issues. Our many raw
Great question, but I would be giving materials vendors have also done a great I enjoy seeing the emergence of the US,
away the family jewels. What I can say is job in producing volumes that far exceed finally, along with new programs in
our glass and silver powder technologies our original projections. This was a great China and India. These will make the
are first rate, which give us outstanding problem to have. many optimistic growth projections not
contact resistance and low reverse current. only possible but even beatable. From a
We do extensive research into dopants and The solar division is based in West short-term business view, the overcapacity
organics. Like thick film, print quality is Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. How do of earlier this year is now being filled and
a key. The Heraeus production technique your sales break down geographically? growth has been explosive. Customers are
is very unique and creates a paste with more and more performance driven and
superior line conductivity. We started in West Conshohocken and this coincides with Heraeus’ strength. All
continue to have the largest group there, this excites me and motivates me to push
You also have lead-free back side pastes but we have built production and technical harder.
available. What are the benefits of the service facilities in Shanghai, China,
lead-free formulations? and Hanau, Germany. Hanau houses Andy, many thanks for talking with us today.
part of our R&D team. We also began
This is one step toward RoHS compliance. construction of a new technical support
This paste has better performance than the facility in Taipei, Taiwan, which will be
Pb-containing paste and can be printed operational at the end of 2009. Regionally
thinner, saving money. We continue to our largest growth is in Asia, but we have
work toward a Pb-free front side paste and major accounts in Europe and the US.
have seen improvements in the last year.
What level of process support do you
What other conductive formulations offer?
do you have for solar cell applications?
We have trained engineers to offer process
We develop three to four new paste support in printing, drying, firing and
formulations per year. Our policy is to testing. With our regional technical
www.globalsolartechnology.com
Global Solar Technology – October/September 2009 – 29
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