Veeco Instruments Inc., announced today the introduction of its FastFlex(TM) line of Web Coating Systems ideally suited for manufacturing CIGS solar cells (those using copper, indium, gallium and selenium). Veeco's advanced FastFlex web deposition platform offers high throughput and excellent performance for flexible thin film solar cell production, contributing to a lower cost of ownership, due to its high quantity of deposition zones in a compact footprint.
Piero Sferlazzo, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of Veeco Solar Equipment, commented, “Veeco now provides comprehensive, fully integrated manufacturing solutions for the Moly, CIGS and TCO layers—enabling customers to achieve full-scale commercialization of flexible solar cells. Our CIGS systems can be tailored to our customers’ requirements and help drive down their cost per watt.”
According to Dr. Sferlazzo, “Veeco is the industry’s only thin film deposition equipment supplier that provides production-proven thermal sources integrated into a CIGS web coating system. This differentiation allows our FastFlex platform to provide CIGS customers with an excellent, high-throughput deposition solution as they move from R&D to production.” Veeco’s FastFlex systems offer superior material utilization, excellent thickness uniformity, and the ability to process web widths up to 350mm with an architecture that supports widths of 1m or more for metal as well as polyimide substrates.