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A slowdown in capacity expansions in 2009 meant PV equipment supplier Roth & Rau posted lower revenue last year than in the previous year of 2008. Revenue in 2009 was €197.9 million, compared to €272.1 million in 2008. However, order intake in the fourth quarter of 2009 was strong, especially from Asia-based customers, the company said. This enabled its order intake to remain close to its 2008 levels, declining only 3.9% in 2009. New orders were €195.6 million in 2009, compared to €269.7 million in 2008. The first weeks of 2010 also witnessed an improved climate in the sector, the company said in a statement, covering 2009 preliminary results.

In an effort to expand its footprint in the crystalline silicon solar cell arena, Roth & Rau has acquired Dutch firm OTB Solar, a subsidiary of OTB Group for €35.5 million. According to Roth & Rau, the acquisition will lead to an expansion of OTB’s product offerings as the company has some new, highly competitive technologies that it expects to be able to develop further and expand into new markets. Roth & Rau also noted that in the future only a small number of equipment suppliers will have the expertise and product portfolio to meet the needs of large, global PV manufacturers.

Solar Holding Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of Roth & Rau, is buying 100% of the shares of Romaric Corp., a manufacturing execution systems company based in Salt Lake City. In addition to boosting its presence in the U.S. market, Roth & Rau said it hopes to use Romaric's extensive experience in the field of software automation for semiconductor and other highly standardized manufacturing companies to extend its own products and services offering to its customers in the solar photovoltaic sector.

Roth & Rau AG has acquired Ortner cleanroom logistic systems GmbH for an undisclosed sum in an effort to meet increasing demand from customers to support crystalline and thin-film equipment servicing, spare parts and other support activities. Ortner, based in Dresden, is a specialist in tool installations and automation company. Ortner’s existing management and skilled workforce will continue to operate the business as a subsidiary of Roth & Rau.

Roth & Rau AG has received a major order to supply two turnkey production lines worth €26 million to the Korean solar cell manufacturer Millinet Solar. The lines, which have production capacities of 60MWp each, will be supplied from June 2009 and November 2009.

Roth & Rau AG and Innovalight have together completed the world’s first silicon-ink based solar cell production line, installed at Innovalight’s Sunnyvale, California facility. The line has reached operational capability and its initial capacity of 10MW can be scaled to several hundred megawatts, according to the companies.

Roth & Rau has said that during the 23rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition which took place in Valencia, Spain in September, it generated new contracts and declarations of intent worth approximately €45 million.

Together with its subsidiary AIS Automation Dresden GmbH, Roth & Rau offers software solutions for pv manufacturing, including MES/production control, equipment interfaces/integration and production planning.

Together with its subsidiary Tecnofimes S.r.l., Roth & Rau develops novel in-line firing furnaces which are, next to the antireflective coating, highly influential in the efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cells. Roth & Rau’s furnaces use ceramic rolls instead of metallic belt as a transportation mechanism for the cells. This avoids any metal contamination.

Together with its subsidiary Tecnofimes S.r.l., Roth & Rau develops novel in-line diffusion furnaces which are, next to the antireflective coating, highly influential in the efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cells. Tecnofimes furnaces use ceramic rolls instead of metallic belts as transportation mechanism for the cells.

SiNUS is the new vacuum furnace for multi-crystalline silicon ingots for photovoltaic wafer production. Advantages of Roth & Rau’s SiNUS include intelligent gas management, a short cycle time of about 48 - 52 hours, and a fully automatic operation.

Roth & Rau's "Advanced Solar Cell Manufacturing" (ASCM) concept  offers, with the company acting as as general contractor in co-operation with partners from research and industry, complete production lines for the industrial manufacturing of crystalline silicon solar cells.

With the "Advanced Solar Cell Manufacturing" (ASCM) concept, Roth & Rau offers, as general contractor in co-operation with partners from research and industry, complete production lines for the industrial manufacturing of crystalline silicon solar cells. The ASCM concept is a package of equipment, process technology, automation solutions and software for production monitoring.

MAiA is a further development of the SiNA series to implement new cell technologies and to introduce new production steps. The applications include back side passivation, the creation of gradient and multilayer coatings (for example, SiN_x + SiO_y) as well as plasma etching technologies for texture or PSG removal.

With the SiNA® family, Roth & Rau provides antireflective coating equipment for crystalline silicon solar cells, which meet the demands of the PV industry for excellent optical and passivation properties and uniformity of the SiN layers and cover a wide range of throughput requirements. SiNA® systems have a high up-time of more than 90% due to longterm process stability, and a maintenance-friendly design and feature excellent costs of ownership.

Product Briefing: With the acquisition of Tecnofimes, Roth & Rau has collaborated with the subsidiary to develop a new firing furnace, dubbed CAMiNI. The system is characterized by high efficiency at low operating costs. The initially offered model with 2 lanes (6” wafers) provides the basis for an extension, which facilitates the firing of solar cell contacts onto up to three lanes at the same time. The throughput of the CAMiNI is indicated with ≥ 6,000 wafers/h. Roth & Rau has already received its first purchase orders for the system.