EU Venture Begins

Thanks to its know-how in the field of thin-wafer handling in the semiconductor industry, Mechatronic Systemtechnik, a supplier of thin-wafer handling systems based in Carinthia, Austria, has been selected by the European Commission to make its skills available to the photovoltaic [solar energy] industry.

"In the photovoltaic sector, too, the trend is clearly towards thin wafers and that is the field we specialize in", says Walter Schober, CEO of Mechatronic Systemtechnik GmbH."

Mechatronic Systemtechnik is a technology partner within the EU project, launched at the beginning of October with a budget of seven million Euros, under the title: "20 percent efficiency on less than 100 µm thick industrially feasible c-Si Solar cells". In conjunction with eight further partners, the company will contribute its extensive know-how to the three-year project. The objective of the EU project is to raise the efficiency of photovoltaic cells to about 20 per cent. In addition, the plan is to reduce the silicon content from 8 grammes to 3 grammes per watt, by bringing the wafer-thickness from a typical 180 micrometres today down to 50 micrometres. The paramount aim of the project is to ensure that Europe's energy supply can meet future needs and to strengthen the European photovoltaic industry.

"In the photovoltaic sector, too, the trend is clearly towards thin wafers and that is the field we specialize in", says Walter Schober, CEO of Mechatronic Systemtechnik GmbH. "The EU project offers us the opportunity, as a qualified partner, to be present when new technologies start being developed and to feed our accumulated know-how with new products for the photovoltaic market", Schober continues.

The partners in the project are four leading European research institutes - Ecoles Polytechniques Fédérales de Lausanne, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, the National Renewable Energy Centre and the University of Konstanz - as well as the companies Eni, Mechatronic Systemtechnik, Photovoltech, PSE and Q-Cells, all of which contribute to a high degree of expertise in the area of thin solar cells and modules and/or their handling.