Avancis has said that its new state-of-the-art CIS thin-film module production plant has begun ramping. Construction of the 100MW capacity facility started in June 2010 and enables the company to offer new products, boost efficiencies and lower costs, compared to its previous 20MW facility. The number of employees at Avancis is set to double from the current 250 to almost 500.
“We are expecting our new product line including all necessary quality certificates to be commercially available by the end of the 1st quarter of next year,” commented Hartmut Fischer. “By then we will also have concluded the start-up phase of the new facility as well as the certification of the new product line.”
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Products from its smaller existing Fab1 are set to be rebranded for next year as PowerMax STRONG as of January 1, 2012. Products from the new production facility will be branded PowerMax SMART and are expected to be available in spring 2012.
The Fab 2 plant is claimed to reach an expected annual capacity of over 800,000 high-performance CIS modules. In September, Avancis announced it has achieved a record new aperture area efficiency of 15.8% on the fully-encapsulated and framed Champion module, verified by TÜV Rhineland.
