Driving down CIGS cost of ownership with high volume thermal deposition systems

One of the biggest challenges for high volume copper indium gallium (di)Selenide (CIGS) manufacturing is transitioning the R&D/pilot processes to a low cost high volume manufacturing process. The most important parameters in lowering the manufacturing cost of ownership (CoO) are module efficiency, low materials cost, high throughput and low capital expenditures. Veeco has developed a CIGS thermal deposition system that incorporates a multi-zone deposition system that enables process optimization for high module efficiency and high throughput. Further manufacturing cost reductions have been achieved by incorporating an innovative linear thermal deposition source for copper (Cu), indium (In), gallium (Ga) and selenium (Se). The linear source dramatically increases material utilization while reducing process complexity. Veeco´s CIGS deposition system can deposit the complete CIGS absorber layer in one system compared to other processes that require two to three systems. A CoO analysis will be provided that quantifies the CIGS system manufacturing productivity.