Your daily dose of photovoltaic technology developments and solar news

• Most Popular Articles

  • Suntech sales reach US$1.7 billion in 2009: capex, capacity and shipments to rise in 2010
  • Q-Cells CEO exits amid investor anxiety
  • Project Focus: U.S. Navy to award $200M in contracts to build 40MW of solar PV power plants
  • Moser Baer achieves 7.3% module efficiency through its proprietary process
  • Yingli Green to add 300MW of capacity; tops $1B in annual revenues, achieves record module shipments

• Popular Technical Papers

  • Photovoltaic Fab Managers’ Forum Review
  • Photovoltaic industry 2009: a journey into uncertainty
  • Overview of automation in the photovoltaic industry
  • Thin-film CIGS starts to come of age
  • CIGS, CdTe thin-film PV equipment sector emerges, standardization remains elusive

• Subscribe to our weekly newsletter

  Name
  Job title
  Company
  Email

Sunovia Energy Technologies and EPIR Technologies have completed Phase 1 of their shared 2,000 sq. ft. cleanroom for the manufacture of cadmium telluride (CdTe)-based solar cells and CdTe and mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe) infrared detectors as part of the joint venture operations. More than $25 million has been invested in R&D and cleanroom facilities to date, the companies said. The cleanroom is based at EPIR’s operations in Bolingbrook, Illinois, USA.

The new cleanroom houses a new molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) machine for the growth of single crystals of semiconductor materials. It also contains an x-ray diffractometer with a CCD camera and a spectrophotometer for measuring encapsulant and solar cell material optical properties and more generally for measuring the thickness and surface roughness of thin film layers.

Also used is a current-voltage station from Keithley and an Oriel/Newport solar simulator to measure solar cell efficiency. Two more MBE machines are currently on order for the Phase II expansion, the companies said.