PV manufacturers across China are switching to ALD passivation for PERC Solar Cells

Good news for Team-ALD! According to PV magazine, PV manufacturers across China are switching from plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) to atomic layer deposition (ALD) as the new method of choice to deposit aluminum oxide passivation layers for PERC solar cells.

Wei-Min Li (CTO of Leadmicro) claims that Leadmicro has so far equipped over 30 GW of manufacturing lines with ALD passivation systems and are still seeing growth. Today Leadmicro is supplying most of the leading Chinese PV module manufacturers with their ALD equipment. From a market share of under 2% in 2017, Leadmicro claimed close to 20% of sales in 2018, becoming the second largest supplier of PERC equipment on the market. In just three years, Leadmicro has grown to 300 employees.

Wei-Min Li (CTO of Leadmicro), Helsinki University ALD Alumni. Photo: Tweet by Mikko Ritala (LINK)

Besides the benefits of ALD in a lower cost of ownership and producing PERC solar cells with higher efficiency, ALD also beats PECVD in throughput. 

“When we entered the market in 2016, PECVD could handle only 3,000 wafers an hour,” says Li. “Our first generation of ALD systems processed 5,000 wafers an hour.” At SNEC PV Power Expo in June this year, Leadmicro plans on revealing the latest ALD system in its Kuafu line of products designed to passivate 10,000 wafers an hour.

Source: PV Magazine (LINK)