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Auslöser fürs wieder-mal-draufgucken war diese Meldung: Applied Materials acquires new solar technology Nuying Huang, Taipei; Jackie Chang, DIGITIMES [Tuesday 24 April 2012] US-based equipment firm Applied Materials recently acquired Varian Semiconductor Equipment. Varian has the technology to reduce the 20 steps of interdigitated back contact (IBC), a process for producing monocrystalline N-type high efficiency solar cells that US-based solar cell firm has been using, down to 10 steps. This has been seen as a revolutionary breakthrough by the solar industry. Applied Materials acquired Varian at the end of 2011 for US$4.9 billion. This will likely strengthen Applied Material's power in the semiconductor market. Industry sources noted that the ion implantation process can change the game for production of monocrystalline N-type high efficiency solar cells. SunPower has been dominating this market with its IBC technology. Nevertheless, it has had difficulty lowering production costs of this technology. Industry sources believe that using the ion implantation process, firms can reduce IBC technology down to 10 steps. This will reduce production costs significantly, making monocrystalline N-type high efficiency solar cells a product that has conversion efficiency above 20% and a reasonable price. Varian is not the only firm that has ion implantation equipment. China- and Japan-based equipment firms have been developing such technology and are eager to find potential markets. |
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| aus der Diskussion: | SunPower: SunPower kündigt weitere Kostensenkungsmaßnahmen an |
| Autor (Datum des Eintrages): | R-BgO (24.04.12 13:34:20) |
| Beitrag: | 4 von 282 (ID:43080390) |
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