LEYBOLD OPTICS' PHOEBUS: highest quality and paramount efficiency for sunny perspectives on future markets
A tradition in creating future markets: LEYBOLD OPTICS (LO) is one of the leading manufacturers of vacuum technology worldwide. When it comes to spectacle glass and packaging material or leading-edge headlights for the automotive industry, global players from all around the globe rely on the performance and quality of coating systems made by the company from Alzenau. LO's business unit 'Solar' designs, manufactures, and mounts state-of-the-art facilities for the production of thin-film solar cells. The latest system of 'PHOEBUS' is LO's answer to the special requirements when manufacturing silicon thin-film solar cells on glass. This coating system uses plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) to achieve perfect results.
By putting PHOEBUS on the market LEYBOLD OPTICS once again consolidates its position as a trailblazer in its industry. The coating systems present convincing characteristics. PHOEBUS, for its part, combines the advantages of proven LO technology and the requirements of coating solar cells on glass. The new system is based on a vertical, carrier-free linear cluster approach. High process stability and maximum productivity are some of the most important features speaking for PHOEBUS. Its minimal need of floor space, low operating expense thanks to a maintenance-friendly set-up, and the extraordinary support offered by LO all around the world make the system a secure investment in a promising future.
Single or tandem cells of highest quality: every glass substrate will experience three steps in different coating chambers for amorphous single junction a-Si cells, or six in the case of tandem cells (a-Si/µc-Si). During the entire process and transfer times all glass substrates are kept at a steady temperature in a thermal equilibrium within the coating chambers and the transport robot. The robot moves inside a vacuum tunnel connecting the In-line coating chambers.
After the coating processes, the glass substrates are transported to the second load- lock with active substrate cooling at the opposite end of the vacuum tunnel for transfer to atmospheric pressure. PHOEBUS is designed for in-situ plasma cleaning of the PECVD chambers with a fluorine-based gas to avoid the high maintenance costs associated with the exchange of mechanical parts. A sophisticated system software package allows for individual chambers to be taken out of the production chain while the machine remains productive.
