Recording of Wednesday, June 19, 2024 | The smarter E Europe 2024 | Exhibition Program | Language: English | Duration: 17:07 .
Dr. Sebastian Gatz from Von Ardenne introduced the company, a German family-run equipment manufacturer specializing in PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) coating technologies. With over 600 patents and 1,300 employees, they have a significant global presence with facilities in Germany, China, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, India and the USA. The company's primary focus is on photovoltaics technology for crystalline and thin-film applications. Von Ardenne has delivered more than 300 mass production tools worldwide with capacities exceeding 35 gigawatts for crystalline photovoltaics and 37 gigawatts for thin films. Their innovations have drastically reduced production costs by increasing throughput; today's equipment processes up to one gigawatt compared to just one megawatt in the year 2000. The firm offers various platforms like HIS (up to 100 MW), Xeanova (up to 700 MW), and GigaNova (up to 1.3 GW). They also provide customized engineering solutions beyond standard photovoltaic applications such as glass coatings or roll-to-roll systems. Key technologies employed include magnetron sputtering and evaporation techniques tailored for high efficiency cell productions like heterojunctions achieving around ~26% efficiency. Notably their approach using PVD circumvent issues found in PCVD/LPCVD methods providing safer operations without toxic gases while maintaining low variability across tunnel oxide layers ensuring yield consistency over extended periods of use.
Automated summarization by AI Conver
The technology for wafer, cell, and module production is continuously advancing. Currently, silicon-based solar modules hold approximately 97 percent of the global market share. While the passivated emitter and rear cell concept (PERC) remains prevalent, there is a notable shift towards tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon), expected to lead in terms of market share by the end of 2024, alongside silicon heterojunction (SHJ), and interdigitated back contact (IBC) cells. The transition to these technologies is fast, for which innovative cell manufacturing approaches are considered.European machine manufacturers are at the forefront of providing solutions to the global market. Their cutting-edge equipment is designed to facilitate the high-quality and efficient production of solar cells. In this session, machine and equipment suppliers, together with European cell manufacturers, will discuss the current state-of-the-art production technology and future trends in the post-TW market.