TALKING POINT Arvid Müller Headquarters in Dresden. Taking wafer coating to a new level VON ARDENNE develops and manufactures advanced The company owes its name to Manfred von Ardenne, a highly gifted, visionary vacuum coating equipment for the deposition of ultra-thin and dedicated scientist and inventor born in 1907. His contribution to inventions such functional layers on materials such as glass, metal strip, as the radio receiver, the television, and wafers and polymer films. In this article, we take an exclusive the scanning electron microscope is extraordinary. He held approximately 600 look at the company and its latest product, XEA|nova. patents in radio and television technology, electron microscopy, nuclear plasma, and medical technologies and was the author The German family-owned company of countless books and publications – VON ARDENNE’s key technologies are without holding a degree or even a high magnetron sputtering and electron beam school diploma. It was thanks to his evaporation and it holds more than 750 farsightedness and hard work that he became such a famous scientist. patents worldwide. Today, VON ARDENNE focuses on The company was founded in 1991 as a reliable technologies to deposit thin layers spin-off of the former Manfred von Ardenne on large areas and very large substrates Research Institute in Dresden, Germany. A homogeneously and in nanometer and consequence of this was that the expertise micrometer scale to realise specific in plasma and electron beam technologies functional behaviours for the advanced that had been acquired over decades could products of its customers. VON ARDENNE be used and developed further. is constantly identifying and analysing 32 PES Solar PES Solar Issue 25 Book.indb 32 10/09/2014 16:45 TALKING POINT VON ARDENNE VON The company regularly exhibits at global solar shows. market trends throughout the industries. In the last years, the market for energy generation, energy saving and lately also the energy storage industry strengthened ARDENNE VON and broadened its technology portfolio. At the recent solar exhibition Intersolar Europe 2014 in Munich, VON ARDENNE introduced its latest vacuum wafer coating platform: the XEA|nova. Wafer based photovoltaics has been the workhorse in solar energy generation for years. At this exhibition, however, we saw the latest ultra-thin, highly efficient crystalline solar cell designs. As a leading developer and manufacturer of vacuum coating equipment for the PV industry, VON ARDENNE has incorporated its superior know-how into a new modular platform, especially designed for these products. The necessary know-how has been gained from over 100 industry proven photovoltaic systems. Wafer coating system XEA|nova. www.pessolar.com 33 PES Solar Issue 25 Book.indb 33 10/09/2014 16:45 TALKING POINT Web coating system FOSA1600 Electron beam gun Coating plattform PIAnova Glass coating system GC60V. XEA|nova is the answer for customers heating or cooling is possible. and a successfully completed in-house looking for highly productive equipment The customer can choose between research and development program. with tried and tested technology and different carrier materials depending on design. The new system accommodates the application. Today, VON ARDENNE offers a wide the special requirements of the solar cell range of advanced vacuum coating Using cylindrical instead of planar targets producing industry and allows the equipment such as: can contribute tremendously to deposition of transparent conductive oxide prolonging the campaign time as the (TCO) and metal layers using physical target utilisation of up to 85% and • The PIA|nova and the GC60V coating vapour deposition. material inventory is much higher platforms as the industry proven solution The XEA|nova can be applied for front compared to planar targets. That means for applying thin metal and transparent and backside deposition of contact layers, that more target material can be used for oxide (TCO) layers on thin-film based passivation layers, barrier layers and the coating processes before the targets solar cells cap layers. need to be exchanged. Additionally – based on the sputter characteristics of • The horizontal glass coating systems The substrates are either simultaneously or rotatable magnetrons – the particle GC254H and GC330H mainly used in the sequentially coated on the front and on the generation is much lower compared to architectural glass industry where it has back side in a continuous process. Once planar targets. been established as the industry the process setup is complete, the coater benchmark can run for days without interruption. The The horizontal XEA|nova wafer coating length of the campaign time depends system can be implemented into an existing • The metal strip coating system MCS1250 mostly on the sputtering target material production environment thanks to the VON for depositing functional layers on thickness and utilisation as well as on the ARDENNE rotatable magnetron technology aluminium, copper and stainless steel target design itself. Furthermore, substrate in sputter-up and sputter-down arrangement strip for a huge variety of application 34 PES Solar PES Solar Issue 25 Book.indb 34 10/09/2014 16:45 TALKING POINT Rolf Grosser Rolf • The web coating system FOSA1600 as processes for the deposition of coating platform in the field of polymer conductive layers film applications • The VON ARDENNE dual anode sputter • The steel tube coater TSS4000 for the system (DAS) in combination with concentrated solar power market rotatable single magnetrons, which • Inline and cluster systems for use in a enables customers to run long term small scale production environment or stable sputter processes depositing in research and development. very low/non-conductive materials with direct current • Over the last decade, VON ARDENNE has developed its own planar and rotatable Proven planar magnetron technology with magnetron technology and has integrated different magnetic field characteristics for a it successfully into its coating systems, wide range of materials which are sold all over the world. The new magnetron generation can be VON ARDENNE offers: equipped with integrated turbomolecular • Rotatable dual magnetrons for alternate pumps, which allows an even more current (AC) sputter processes for the compact coater design. deposition of many low-conductivity or Look out for the company at PV Taiwan, non-conductive layers meet the experts and get some first-hand • Rotatable single magnetrons in double or information about the company and its single arrangement for direct current (DC) innovative products. www.vonardenne.biz www.pessolar.com 35 PES Solar Issue 25 Book.indb 35 10/09/2014 16:45.