Varian Semiconductor announces entry into solar cell manufacturing technology

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: At the recently held Intersolar Trade Show in the Moscone Center West, Varian introduced its newest product into the photovoltaic manufacturing market.

The Varian Solion combines the best elements of the semiconductor industry's benchmark Varian VIISta product line with innovations developed specifically for the solar market, resulting in a revolutionary platform that will accelerate the industry towards grid parity.

The Varian Solion is based on the production-proven VIISta family and its installed base of over 1200 implanters. It has the legacy of a highly reliable manufacturing tool and with Varian's industry leading customer-support organization, new customers can be assured they will receive leading edge technology and service. It is targeted at lowering cost and improving manufacturability while increasing the efficiency of silicon solar cells.

Solion provides innovative and proprietary Precision Patterned Implant (PPI) technology which enables exceptional junction engineering capability -- critical for all high efficiency cell designs. PPI provides customers with a roadmap to greater cell efficiencies at lower $/Wp.

"We have combined our tremendous depth of knowledge in junction engineering with our market leading VIISta implant platform to deliver the only solution that will provide higher efficiency, tighter binning, reduced process complexity and lower $/Wp to the PV industry today and for many generations to come," said Jim Mullin, VP and GM of Varian Solar Products.

"The response from the industry has been very positive. We are extremely excited to officially launch the Solion product at Intersolar NA and join the race towards grid parity."

"A major part of our corporate growth strategy is to expand our implant technology leadership into adjacent markets where we can bring highly differentiated value to our customers," said Gary Dickerson, CEO of Varian Semiconductor.

"We have worked with customers to validate an improvement in cell efficiency and a reduction in process steps using ion implant in the solar manufacturing process. Implant can also enable future advanced high efficiency cell designs at low cost. Varian is committed to working with our solar customers to achieve a cell efficiency and cost per watt competitive advantage."