Spotlight On Photovoltaic Fabrication Solutions from Advanced Energy

Demand for PV Increases, Yet Margins Decrease

Prices for photovoltaic (PV) solar technology have decreased 62 percent since 2009.¹  The cost of energy generated by utility-scale solar plants has seen 86 percent decrease in the past 10 years as well.² These trends are not only making it economically smart for homeowners to install solar panels, they are spurring new business models such as community solar, which enables people and businesses to designate that a portion of their electricity is sourced from utility-scale solar farm developments.

So, it comes as no surprise that solar power is the fastest growing segment of the energy industry. For PV manufacturers, rising demand and falling market prices create great pressure to increase yield and product quality while reducing operational costs.

Coatings and Films Determine Your Competitive Edge

The most efficient, durable and therefore most valuable PV panels feature an anti-reflective thin film that’s been deposited with exceptional precision, even during high-volume production. With tolerances on the nanometer scale, it’s critical that the power supply driving substrate sputtering offers both waveform control and flexibility. Advanced Energy offers a range of DC power supplies designed to meet those requirements by reducing variation and optimizing yield, helping PV fabricators compete in the global market.

• Pinnacle^® Series – This versatile package offers the lowest stored energy (less than 1 mJ per 1 kW of output), fastest arc response and widest full-power operational impedance range in the industry, all in a small footprint.
• Pinnacle^® Plus+ – Combining standard DC technology and our patented pulsed-DC technology, Pinnacle Plus+ power supplies provide high deposition rates, repeatable performance and exceptional film quality compared to complicated and expensive AC-power solutions.
• Ascent^® AMS Series – Featuring AE’s Arc Management System™ (AMS) technology, Ascent AMS series supplies are capable of delivering stable throughput and power delivery under extreme arcing conditions, regardless of process material.

AE’s Approach to Solar PV

Advanced Energy’s exceptional insight of solar PV fabrication requirements enables us to develop off-the-shelf and custom power supplies engineered for every step in the process, from deposition to chamber cleaning. A good discussion of how we approach critical chamber cleaning is found in a our whitepaper, Remote Plasma Source Chamber Anodization. In it, we describe in detail how our products provide reliable, particle-free, remote CVD chamber cleaning with minimal periodic maintenance to assure maximum tool uptime and drastically reduce TCO.

You also can learn more about Advanced Energy’s power solutions for solar PV fabrication processes by visiting the Solar Voltaic Manufacturing area on our web site, or by finding your area AE distributor through our Distributor Locator tool.