Coherent gives a talk at Solar Korea

September, 2008 – Coherent, Inc., the leading manufacturer of lasers and laser-based solutions for the solar industry, today announced that Finlay Colville, Director of Solar Marketing, will speak at the first dedicated solar event to be held in Korea – the Solar/PV Summit Korea, at the Conference Center, COEX, Seoul, Korea, on Tuesday, September 23, on current and emerging laser applications within the solar industry.

“The summit is a great opportunity to share some of the novel laser processes currently being implemented within new production line equipment used by solar cell manufacturers, and to connect with some of the leading c-Si and Thin-Film value-chain manufacturers within Korea,” Coherent’s Director of Solar Marketing Colville stated. “Lasers are currently used in c-Si cell manufacturing for applications such as edge isolation, laser grooved buried contacts, and dielectric ablation, and in thin film panel production at the patterning and border deletion stages. Non-contact laser based equipment is set to become a preferred choice of tooling within next-generation production lines.”

ABOUT Coherent, Inc. – Founded in 1966, Coherent, Inc. is a Russell 2000 Indexed company and a world leader in providing laser-based solutions to the commercial and scientific research markets.  Please direct any questions regarding content found in this release to Finlay Colville, Director of Marketing – Solar, at + 44 (0) 7802 238 775 or finlay.colville@coherent.com.  For more information about Coherent’s role in the solar industry, visit our website atwww.Coherent.com/Solar.

ABOUT Solar/PV Summit Korea 2008 – The conference and exhibition represents the first dedicated solar event to be held in Korea. Conference topics include: applications, installation case studies, and market overviews.  For more information, go to www.it-conference.net/event/spsk2008/main.htm.

 

New Ultra-Short-Pulse Laser for High Efficiency Cell Concepts

 Coherent, Inc. introduces a new laser system – the Talisker - optimized for next-generation high-efficiency solar cell manufacturing, and designed as a drop-in, turn-key tool for both production line equipment suppliers and cell manufacturers.

 

 

Traditionally, laser scribers for Edge Isolation, Laser Grooved Buried Contacts, and Wrap-Through hole drilling have had to rely upon lasers operating with short-pulses of nanosecond duration and often laser emission only in the infra-red spectral region at 1064 nm.  However, to optimize the scribing precision and minimize laser damage – or microcracking – within c-Si wafers, the use of a) ultra-short pulse ‘picosecond’ durations, and b) ultra-short laser emission with green or UV outputs, is highly beneficial.  The new Talisker laser brings these features to solar cell manufacturing for the first time.

The Talisker laser draws upon Coherent’s established position as a leading supplier of short-pulse nanosecond AVIA and PRISMA lasers for existing c-Si and Thin-Film equipment tools, most of which run in 24 / 7 high-volume environments.  The Talisker laser operates with similar output energies and speed (pulsing repetition-rate).  But the key difference is the shorter pulse-width of the Talisker.  This provides orders of magnitude higher peak intensities for precision scribing, and reduces vastly the thermal damage, sometimes seen with certain laser/material interaction.

The other strength of the Talisker laser is that it delivers different outputs in the infra-red, green, or UV spectral regions, by software control.  UV and green wavelengths are essential for highly localized surface scribing on c-Si wafers, due to the very short penetration depths in the green and in particular UV at 355 nm.  Combining ultra-short picosecond pulse operation with high-energy green / UV output wavelengths brings a new level of precision for many applications of lasers in high-efficiency c-Si cell manufacturing.  One example is Selective Ablation of dielectric materials, where minimizing damage in the underlying bulk silicon is essential.  Equally, within Thin-Film patterning, the ability to scribe layers with increasing precision is critical.  One example here is laser scribing the P2 and P3 steps for CIGS.

The Talisker is a modular and scalable design based on fiber-laser technology. Talisker operates off single-phase electricity and requires no external consumables.  Complete with on-board diagnostics and remote Ethernet preventative-maintenance access, the Talisker can be easily integrated within inline turn-key tools.  Benefiting from a hybrid fiber / free-space laser head design, the footprint measures less than 40 cm x 100 cm.

ABOUT Coherent, Inc. – Founded in 1966, Coherent, Inc. is a Russell 2000 Indexed company and a world leader in providing laser-based solutions to the commercial and scientific research markets. Please direct any questions  regarding content found in this release to  Finlay Colville , Director of Marketing – Solar,  at +44 (0) 7802 238 775 or finlay.colville@coherent.com. For more information about Coherent’s role in the solar industry, visit our website at www.Coherent.com/Solar.

Coherent, Inc. to Present at Photovoltaics Summit 2008 in San Diego, June 19th

Santa Clara, CA, – June 16, 2008 – Coherent, Inc., the leading manufacturer of lasers and laser-based solutions for the solar industry, today announced that Finlay Colville, Director of Solar Marketing, will speak at IntertechPira’s Photovoltaics Summit 2008 at the Hilton San Diego Resort in San Diego, CA on Thursday, June 19, on current and emerging laser applications within the solar industry. 

 

“The summit is a great opportunity both to share some of the novel laser processes currently being implemented within new production line equipment used by solar cell manufacturers, and to connect with some of the world’s leading companies active throughout the solar value chain,” Coherent’s Director of Solar Marketing Colville stated.  “Lasers are currently used in c-Si cell manufacturing for applications such as edge isolation and laser grooved buried contacts, and in thin film panel production at the cell interconnection or patterning stages.  Non-contact laser based equipment is set to become the preferred choice of tooling within next-generation production lines where high-efficiency concepts are increasingly adopted on thin sub-200-micron thick wafers.” 

 

The 3rd annual international summit runs from June 18-20 and focuses on business and technical innovations in the solar industry. Over the course of three days the conference program will feature two keynote presentations, 22 plenary session talks, two panels and two half-day pre-conference workshops. In all, 35 industry leaders from around the globe, including India, Australia, Japan, Germany and the US, will provide a comprehensive assessment of the global market, finance and investments, developments in crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV), the outlook for silicon feedstock and manufacturing, advances in thin films and future generation PV, balance of system (BOS) and applications. 

 

ABOUT Coherent, Inc. – Founded in 1966, Coherent, Inc. is a world leader in providing laser-based solutions to the commercial and scientific research markets. Please direct any questions  regarding content found in this release to  Finlay Colville , Director of Marketing – Solar,  at +44 (0) 7802 238 775 or finlay.colville@coherent.com. For more information about Coherent’s role in the solar industry, visit our website at www.Coherent.com/Solar. 

 

ABOUT IntertechPira’s Photovoltaics Summit 2008 – The summit will address the most salient business and technical issues facing the global PV industry. This conference will bring together industry experts, manufacturers, researchers and end users for a balanced, comprehensive discussion of the opportunities and challenges surrounding photovoltaic markets, investment, production, applications and technological requirements, challenges and breakthroughs. For more info go to:  www.pvsummit.com or www.photovoltaicssummit.com.