03/21/12 SoLayTec and ISFH extend cooperation
SoLayTec today announced the purchase of a Process Development Tool by SoLayTec’s research partner ISFH. ISFH sets out to optimize the Al2O3 deposition and will implement the resulting surface passivation layers into different types of silicon solar cells currently under development at ISFH. The next PDT will be delivered in May of 2012 and is capable of processing about 100 wafer per hour with Al2O3. This project is funded by the German Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).
09/12/11 RENA increases share in SoLayTec to 45%
The German based equipment and technology company RENA has increased its share in SoLayTec to 45%, becoming the largest shareholder of SoLayTec. RENA is expert for wet processing equipment for high tech branches. In combination with the single side polishing in RENA InPolish, the SoLayTec ALD opens new options to increase efficiency of solar cells, especially for high efficiency cells. SoLayTec production equipment will be exclusively sold by RENA. Four Process Development Tools ( PDT ) will be installed at customer sites in the third and fourth quarter of 2011.
06/28/11 SoLayTec sells lab-to-fab tools for Al2O3 ultrafast ALD
Imec, Fraunhofer ISE and two Asian cell manufacturers have shown their trust in the ultrafast ALD technology from SoLayTec. SoLayTec announced that the first four Process Development Tools (PDT) are sold and will be installed at customer sites in the third and fourth quarter of 2011. Research institutes work with ultrafast ALD These two institutes are working on Al2O3 for c-Si solar cells for some years already and have shown good results on efficiency improvement for new cell concepts. This was mainly done with their standard thermal ALD research reactors. In the past year it was shown that the quality of Al2O3 deposited by SoLayTec’s ultrafast ALD is equal to standard thermal research reactors, but at over 50 times higher output. The passivation properties are also better than those deposited by PECVD...
05/31/11 High-rate atomic layer deposition of Al2O3 for the surface passivation of Si solar cells
High-rate spatial atomic layer deposition (ALD) enables an industrially relevant deposition of high-quality aluminum oxide (Al2O3) films for the surface passivation of silicon solar cells. We demonstrate a homogeneous surface passivation at a deposition rate of ~ 30 nm/min on 15.6×15.6 cm2 silicon wafers of 10 nm thick Al2O3 layers deposited in a novel inline spatial ALD system. The effective surface recombination velocity on n-type Czochralskigrown (Cz) silicon wafers is shown to be virtually independent of injection level...
