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GTAT to Showcase Six-Inch SiC Wafers and More at SNEC 2018 PV Power Expo

May 16, 2018 by Paul Shepard

GTAT Corporation (GTAT) will be showcasing several of its new products at this year’s SNEC 2018 Power Expo being held in Shanghai, China, May 28-30. New products on display in GTAT’s booth this year include Tube Filaments, a break-through innovation that increases the productivity of any Siemens CVD process, and the Continuous Cz Feeder, a technology that improves the quality and lowers the cost of producing monocrystalline ingots.

GTAT will also be displaying samples of its six-inch SiC material. GTAT is positioning itself to become a major supplier of six-inch SiC material to meet the growing demand for lower-cost material for next generation PV inverters. GTAT’s booth is located in Hall E4-215.

“We are excited to be showcasing our latest products and technologies at the upcoming SNEC tradeshow,” said Greg Knight, CEO at GT Advanced Technologies. “GTAT has a long history of developing products that drive cost out of the PV value chain and our line up at this year’s show builds on that legacy of innovation. Highlighting the product displays in our booth are the new Tube Filaments and Continuous Cz Feeder.

“Additionally, we will have samples of our six-inch Silicon Carbide material on display. The availability of low-cost, high-quality Silicon Carbide material is important for the PV industry as well as other power electronics industry segments such as energy storage and electric vehicles,” Knight observed.

Tube Filaments

GTAT’s proprietary Tube Filaments are a revolutionary new technology for the polysilicon industry. Used with any Siemens CVD reactor, Tube Filaments replace standard filaments to deliver dramatic improvements in both productivity and energy consumption – while improving reliability – all of which adds up to multi-dollar per kilogram savings with NO capital expense required.

The unique design of the Tube Filaments maximizes the surface area available for silicon growth from the very start of the deposition cycle. This increases production capacity by greater than 30% while using 20% less electricity to achieve the same final rod diameter as normal production.

Mr. Michael Pfund, GTAT’s Product Manager for Tube Filaments, will be delivering a presentation titled Use of Large Surface Area Filaments to Improve Siemens CVD Performance as part of the Industry Workshop on PV Intelligent Manufacturing Technology on Tuesday, May 29 at 2:30 pm in the Kerry Hotel.

Continuous Cz Feeder

GTAT’s proprietary Continuous Cz Feeder integrates with any high volume Cz furnace currently in production offering manufacturers of monocrystalline silicon ingots a way to achieve greater throughput capacity and lower costs – while producing a superior product. By continuously feeding polysilicon and dopant into the melt during the pulling process, manufacturers can produce longer ingots with even resistivity throughout the length of the ingot resulting in a 15% increase in throughput, 10% improvement in crystal yield and lower operating costs compared with current batch Cz pullers.

The Continuous Cz Feeder process also addresses the problem of light induced degradation (LID), a common problem associated with solar cells fabricated on boron doped p-type mono silicon wafers. Replacing boron with gallium during the pulling process solves the loss of cell efficiency due to LID.

Dr. Han Xu, GTAT’s Product Manager for the Continuous Cz Feeder product line, will be delivering a presentation titled Uniform distributions of material properties of continuous Czochralski (CCz) produced monocrystalline silicon and their effect on PERC cell performance at the Scientific Conference on Monday, May 28 at 1:45 pm in the Kerry Hotel.