Lasers
PlanetSolar, World's Largest Solar-Powered Boat Stops in Miami
24 May 2013POSTED IN Applications News
MS Turanor PlanetSolar, the world’s largest, solar-powered yacht ever constructed, will set sail this month on a transatlantic, scientific expedition to study climate change. In only 22 days, the vessel broke its Guinness World Record for completing the fastest transatlantic crossing with a solar boat, solely operated without any fuel or CO2 emissions.
SNEC 2013: InnoLas Systems Laser PERC solar manufacturing solution
07 May 2013POSTED IN New Products
InnoLas Systems demonstrates a laser PERC solar manufacturing system at SNEC PV Power Expo in Shanghai, Booth E3 398.
Coherent Acquires Lumera Laser
21 December 2012POSTED IN Business News
Coherent, Inc. announced that it acquired Lumera Laser GmbH of Kaiserslautern, Germany, a manufacturer ultrafast lasers for micro-electronics, and precision materials processing.
Inspection and Measurement of PV Ingots, Wafers and Cells
14 November 2012POSTED IN Applications Features
It cannot be repeated often enough. Inspection of solar panels during production improves the quality, lifetime and energy conversion efficiency, as well as production cost. When inspection takes place from the earliest moments in production, it helps pick out the downgraded silicon material before it can obtain added value through later stages of manufacturing or cause machine downtime from parts broken due to defects. So, careful testing of wafers and PV cells during the entire production process is very important. Even during the pre-wafer stage, the ingots and bricks should be checked.
Solarpeq 2012: Jenoptik shows laser technology for thin-film PV
19 October 2012POSTED IN New Products
Jenoptik today announced it will show its laser machine technology for the solar industry at Solarpeq 2012 (hall 11, booth G76) in Dusseldorf, Germany, 23-26 October.
Novus Media Today Announces "Novus Light Technologies Today"
09 October 2012POSTED IN Business News
Solar Novus Today's parent company, Novus Media Today, announced the launch of Novus Light Technologies Today, an online business-to-business publication that is focused on light-based technologies and features original reporting from industry experts located around the globe.
EU PVSEC 2012: Jenoptik laser sources and machines for solar cell processing
25 September 2012POSTED IN New Products
Jenoptik’s Lasers & Material Processing division shows its laser sources and laser machines for innovative and efficient photovoltaic production at EU PVSEC 2012, hall 3, booth D17a of the Messe Frankfurt in Frankfurt am Main, Germany this week.
EU PVSEC 2012: Singulus exhibits PERC solar cells machines
13 September 2012POSTED IN New Products
Singulus Technologies today announced it debut a production solution for rear side passivated silicon solar cells (e.g., PERC: Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell) at the 2012 European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference in Frankfurt, Germany, 25-28 September.
DEK Solar Debuts Next-Gen Apollo Metallization Platform
24 May 2012POSTED IN New Products
DEK Solar, a provider of screen printing equipment and processes for fuel cell and solar cell manufacture, has announced the development and commercial launch of its next-generation integrated cell manufacturing metallization platform, Apollo.
SNEC 2012: Rofin upgrades laser for selective emitter processing
04 May 2012POSTED IN New Products
Rofin is broadening the product range for its “Dual Line c-Si” ™ machine to other applications as laser fired contact, front side scribing and metal wrap through cell (MWT) drilling.
WREF 2012: Robyn, El-Ashry, Kimman and Eckhart Join Speaker Roster
23 February 2012POSTED IN Business News
Dorothy Robyn, Ph.D., Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Installations and Environment, will address the World Renewable Energy Forum (WREF 2012) in Denver, 13-17 May. Also joining the distinguished list of speakers will be Mohamed El-Ashry, Senior Fellow of the United Nations Foundation; Jacques Kimman, Ph.D., Professor of Renewable Energy at Zuyd University in the Netherlands; and Michael Eckhart, President of the American Council on Renewable Energy.
Carbon Nanotubes offer Prospects for Novel Thin-film Solar Cells
23 January 2012POSTED IN Research
A research group from the Los Alamos National Laboratory has shown for the first time that bundles of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can not only generate electron-hole pairs (excitons) when exposed to light but also separate these charge carriers. This latter feature is critical in the PV context, as to create a current, the electrons and holes must be separated in the brief time before they combine and are absorbed back into the material.
Turnkey Solar Manufacturing
16 January 2012POSTED IN Applications Features
Solar manufacturers are racing to achieve sustained grid parity, the result of which will free the solar market from government funding and from subsequent political dependency. Some solar manufacturers chose turnkey manufacturing systems to get up and running quickly, while others source some components themselves or go with completely proprietary setups to try to set themselves apart from the competition.
SiOnyx Solar Black Silicon Solar Cells Deliver Efficiency Boost
25 October 2011POSTED IN Applications News
SiOnyx, Inc. today announced that its patented laser-texturing technology, known as Black Silicon, has achieved a 0.3% (absolute) efficiency boost over industry-standard baseline solar cells.
Newport Corporation Enters Into Agreement to Acquire Ophir Optronics Ltd.
08 July 2011POSTED IN Business News
Newport Corporation today reported that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Ophir Optronics Ltd., a global leader in precision infrared optics, photonics instrumentation and three-dimensional ("3D") non-contact measurement equipment.
Thin Film Laser Scribing for PV Manufacturing: Part 2
19 June 2011POSTED IN Applications Features
This two-part series describes the current generation of laser-based thin film patterning systems that provide high performance thin film scribing for the solar panel industry. In Part 1, we looked at the laser process in thin film manufacturing, types of lasers used for particular processes, the need for speed and accuracy, and ablation. Here we’ll look at some advanced features in a new generation of scribing tools.
Thin Film Laser Scribing for PV Manufacturing: Part 1
25 May 2011POSTED IN Applications Features
Current generation laser-based thin film patterning systems provide high performance thin film scribing for the solar panel industry. This two-part article focuses on the features that benefit today’s manufacturers and distinguish the most advanced systems from previous generations.
Light’s Magnetic Field Could Produce Power Without Traditional Solar Cells
17 April 2011POSTED IN Research
Generating power from sunlight without traditional semiconductor-based solar cells might be possible thanks to a magnetic effect of light discovered by University of Michigan researchers.
Laser World of Photonics Looks at Lasers in PV Manufacturing
30 March 2011POSTED IN Applications News
Laser World of Photonics, which takes place 23 - 26 May, 2011 in Munich, Germany, will include focus topics "Lasers and Laser Systems in Production," and "Green Photonics," and is offering a free white paper, "How Lasers are Changing Photovoltaic Manufacturing" on the Laser World of Photonics website.
Applied Materials Expands the Limits of Darkfield Wafer Inspection
16 March 2011POSTED IN New Products
Applied Materials, Inc. today announced the new Applied DFinder inspection system, a technology breakthrough for inspecting the challenging interconnect layers in 22 nanometre (nm) and smaller memory and logic chips.
