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An all‐sputtering process and equipment for CIGS solar cells
Author(s) -
Lindström Sven
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
vakuum in forschung und praxis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.213
H-Index - 13
eISSN - 1522-2454
pISSN - 0947-076X
DOI - 10.1002/vipr.201300534
Subject(s) - copper indium gallium selenide solar cells , sputtering , roll to roll processing , substrate (aquarium) , thin film solar cell , production (economics) , productivity , process (computing) , materials science , engineering , sputter deposition , optoelectronics , engineering physics , solar cell , mechanical engineering , process engineering , nanotechnology , thin film , computer science , oceanography , geology , economics , macroeconomics , operating system
Abstract The Swedish company Midsummer AB has developed an all‐sputtering process and equipment for CIGS solar cells. The company was founded in 2004 by people from the optical disc and flat panel display industry. Most CIGS solar cells are made on large glass substrates, another option is to make the solar cells with a roll‐to‐roll process on a flexible stainless steel substrate. Midsummer has chosen a third approach, by adopting the founders experience from the low cost optical disc industry. Instead of increasing the productivity by increasing the substrate size, they decided to design a machine and process that produces many small substrates with fast pace. Such a machine can be very compact and the productivity is achieved by using 25 small sputter chambers. Large scale production of solar cells can them be achieved by adding many small production systems, exactly as was in the case for optical discs, that eventually lead to an annual production capacity of 35 billion CDs and DVDs.