Product Briefing Outline: Veeco Instruments has introduced its ‘FastFlex’ line of Web Coating Systems designed for manufacturing CIGS solar cells (those using copper, indium, gallium and selenium). Veeco’s ‘FastFlex’ web deposition platform offers high throughput and improved performance for flexible thin film solar cell production that is claimed to contribute to a lower cost of ownership, due to its high quantity of deposition zones in a compact footprint.
Problem: The high temperature and high-volume throughput demands of CIGS solar cell manufacturing requires highly uniform deposition while maintaining high tool up-time. Due to cost per watt requirements for thin film, greater levels of economic consumption of materials is required, resulting in the need for higher total material utilization.
Solution: Veeco claims to be the industry’s only thin film deposition equipment supplier that provides production-proven thermal sources integrated into a CIGS web coating system. This differentiation allows our FastFlex platform to provide CIGS customers with an excellent, high-throughput deposition solution as they move from R&D to production.” Veeco’s FastFlex systems offer superior material utilization, excellent thickness uniformity, and the ability to process web widths up to 350mm with an architecture that supports widths of 1m or more for metal as well as polyimide substrates.
Applications: CIGS solar cells
Platform: The FastFlex platform consists of three systems – one for the Transparent Conductive Oxide (TCO) utilizing reactive sputtering, one for metal deposition with sputtering (the Molybdenum layer), and one for the CIGS layer, integrating Veeco’s proven PV-Series Thermal Deposition Sources. To help deliver high throughput, the FastFlex system features flexible architecture that can be configured to specific needs, with a choice of rotary or planar magnetron cathode assemblies, loading and maintenance requirements, and more.
Availability: Currently available.