ENGINEERINGNET.EU -- Twin Creeks Technologies, a builder of manufacturing equipment for thin crystalline wafers for the solar industries, launches a new manufacturing system based on a technology called Proton Induced Exfoliation (PIE).
The new system produces thin wafers with about 1/10th the thickness of conventional wafers. This enables manufacturers to produce solar cells and other devices well below today’s best-in-class cost structure.
Twin Creeks estimates that it new production system will permit manufacturers to produce solar cells for under 40 dollarcents a watt in commercial-scale volume production facilities with prices declining over time.
“The thickness of wafers today is based on wafer slicing capabilities and the handling requirements for device processing. In reality, only the very top layer of a substrate plays an active role in generating energy or transmitting signals – the rest is wasted,” said Dr. Siva Sivaram, CEO of Twin Creeks. “Our system eliminats all excess material.”
The company, in collaboration with the state of Mississippi, has built a commercial demonstration plant in Senatobia, Mississippi. Senatobia is currently capable of producing 25 megawatts of solar cells a year and will be expanded to 100 megawatts.
Twin Creeks Technologies was founded in 2008.
(picture: Twin Creeks Technologies)
BACKGROUNDER
The PIE production system effectively uses atoms as a scalpel. It embeds a uniform layer of high-energy protons, which are hydrogen ions, into monocrystalline wafers to a depth of up to 20 microns. When heated, this new layer expands, cleaving the top surface from the donor wafer to form an ultra-thin wafer that is otherwise identical to the original. The ultra-thin wafer is then further processed into solar modules or semiconductors. Creating wafers with PIE also eliminates the kerf, or wasted silicon, in solar manufacturing.
