ULVAC WINS ORDER FROM NexPower Technology Corporation FOR COMPLETE
SOLAR CELL MANUFACTURING PLANT TO BE BUILT IN TAIWAN
Deal will include all manufacturing peripheral equipment and
production training
Chigasaki, Japan.-March 23, 2007-ULVAC, Inc.
Following a 2 year period of study and preparation, United
Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) subsidiary NexPower Technology
Corporation has decided to establish a new solar cell manufacturing
plant in Taiwan. They have signed an agreement today to use
ULVAC's full-scale thin film manufacturing line equipment which
will include all solar cell manufacturing peripheral equipment
such as plasma CVD equipment, laser scribing
equipment, sputtering equipment, and sealing
equipment, etc. In addition, ULVAC will
provide all the actual production training and start-up of the
manufacturing line which will handle 1.1m x 1.4m size substrates,
suitable for main power electric generation.
Prior to today's agreement, ULVAC already conducted process
verification with small size substrates, and has now started
to process the large 1.1m x 1.4m size substrates in their Chigasaki
factory. This phase of the project will be com
pleted by mid-2007. At the same time, ULVAC is developing
micro-crystalline Si process and tandem structure followed by
an a-Si process in order to improve power generation efficiency.
NexPower Technology Corporation is expected to operate the factory
at a production volume rate of 12.5MW per year with a-Si and plans
to expand production volume gradually from that point. The ultimate
production goal is 100MW/year with micro-crystalline and tandem structure.
The plant will be located in Hsinchu, Taiwan, and will begin operations
in Q1-2008. It is expected that this $2 billion Taiwanese dollar capital
investment will make NexPower the leading producer of the largest size
solar cells in Taiwan.
ULVAC has been mainly providing solar cell
manufacturing equipment to companies in Japan since the early 1980's.
In the 1990's, ULVAC focused heavily on the commercialization of TFT-LCD
based FPD manufacturing equipment and technology.
Today, as a result of
increased inquiries from prospective customers about thin film solar cell
manufacturing equipment, ULVAC is once again focusing on solar cell
manufacturing technology and plans to bring their extensive FPD
manufacturing line expertise over to the solar cell manufacturing side of
their business. Few, if any companies are able to match ULVAC's breadth
and depth of thin film production equipment experience and the handling
of large, fragile substrates in a high volume manufacturing line environment.
For more information, please contact us.
For
more information |
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TEL
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