Applied Materials kills the turnkey SunFab thin-film a-Si/mc-Si PV line, after failing to keep up with CdTe and CIGS thin-film technologies in efficiency and cost, taking ~$400M loss.

Intermolecular, the company that brought combinatorial chemistry to semiconductor manufacturing R&D, has expanded its focus to look at ways to improve basic manufacturing processes for photovoltaic (PV) fabs. “I think that the PV devices of 10 years from now will look significantly different from those of today,” said Intermolecular vice president and general manager of […]

After more than 5 years and US$500 million dollars invested, Nanosolar has emerged from secrecy to quell rumors that the company’s technology was all smoke and nanomirrors. This long-shot technology risk is now claimed to produce mean cell efficiencies of 11%, with a champion cell from a Gen3 line measured by NREL at 16%. The […]

Abound Solar (formerly AVA Solar), a manufacturer of CdTe thin-film photovoltaic (PV) solar panels, announced the opening of its first full-scale production facility in Longmont, Colo. This facility uses a proprietary manufacturing process that is claimed to significantly reduce production costs of solar panels. The fully automated facility will create more than 300 new jobs […]

sp3 Diamond Technologies – the supplier of diamond film products, equipment, and services – today announced it is taking orders for 50mm and 100mm silicon on diamond (SOD) wafers for use as Gallium Nitride (GaN) substrates. Having worked with Nitronix on the GaN, sp3 Diamond Technologies uses combinations of thin-film depositions, wafer thinning, and layer […]

Intermolecular, the combinatorial R&D company that has been working on semiconductor fab processes, plans to grow solar R&D to possibly be the largest portion of the company’s business. Under the leadership of new vice president and general manager of solar business group Craig Hunter (who joined from Applied Materials), Intermolecular is now working on both […]

Semilab, founded in 1990 and headquartered in Budapest, Hungary, is spending cash to continue to expand its portfolio of fab metrology offerings. Today, the company announced it has acquired Advanced Metrology Systems (AMS) and QC Solutions. The two Massachusetts-based metrology companies expand Semilab’s family of scalable, flexible solutions to help semiconductor and solar manufacturers characterize […]

Veeco announced yesterday that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Daiyang Metal of Korea, a leader in the production of cold rolled stainless steel, to be its supplier of equipment to manufacture CIGS solar cells. As a first milestone in this relationship, Daiyang has placed an initial multi-million dollar purchase order with Veeco […]

The SEMI PV Group today announced the release of its Global Photovoltaic (PV) Standards Roadmap Guidance Document, which identifies immediate opportunities for reducing cost and accelerating innovation in thin-film and crystalline silicon cell and module manufacturing through industry standards. This new roadmap confirms that major manufacturing cost savings are possible through standardizing wafer carriers and […]