Applied Materials, Inc. (Santa Clara, California) on March 16th, 2009 released a new wire saw dubbed "HCT MaxEdge" for slicing ingots into ultra-thin solar wafers. The company reports that this new system could help customers to drive down the cost for manufacturing crystalline silicon (c-Si) photovoltaic (PV) cells by up to 0.18 US-Dollars per watt, assuming a polysilicon price of US-Dollars 55 per kilogram. According to the press release, key technical advances include a dual-wire management system that enables "MaxEdge" to deliver higher throughput and load capacity than competitive systems, while requiring much less factory floor space and fewer operators for equivalent megawatt output.

The new system due to Applied Materials allows PV cell manufacturers to produce thinner wafers, thereby reducing the amount of silicon per wafer, which ultimately results in lower cost-per-watt of installed PV capacity. The "MaxEdge" delivers ultra-thin wafers without sacrificing throughput by enabling larger ingot lengths and using thinner wires at higher cutting speeds, Applied Materials emphasizes.

Cheaper wafers for competitive solar energy

The "MaxEdge" system's dual-wire management system employs four independently-controlled direct drive motors and advanced process control to lower wire tension, reducing wire wear and decreasing ingot scrap and unplanned downtime, Applied reports in the press release. The reduced tension due to Applied allows the use of smaller diameter cutting wires, resulting in significantly less silicon loss without compromising yield. "With the 'MaxEdge' system we've boosted the wafer output and lowered the operating expenses of our industry-leading 'HCT B5' system, making the best wire saw on the market even better", said Stefan Schneeberger, Vice President and General Manager of Applied Materials' Precision Wafering Systems division. "Since the wafer is the most expensive component of crystalline silicon-based PV manufacturing flow, reducing wafer fabrication cost is critical to the goal of making solar energy competitive with grid power."

2009-03-17 | Courtesy: Applied Materials, Inc. | solarserver.com © Heindl Server GmbH