Neuchatel, Switzerland-based Indeotec SA says it has received an order for its Octopus II unit, a new tool based on its Octopus product family that consists of an eight-sided modular cluster equipment combining several plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) chambers, physical vapor deposition (PVD) chambers, heating tools and customized chambers around the central unit.
The first two Octopus I units, which are smaller than Octopus II, were delivered and installed at PV Lab-EPFL in 2009, where they were used for the development of heterojunction crystalline silicon modules and thin-film modules. PV Lab has placed orders for two additional PECVD deposition units.
‘Octopus offers the capability of processing entire solar cell device inside one system without breaking the vacuum between the various PECVD and PVD steps and is a unique process development and pilot production tool,’ says Dr. Omid Shojaei, CEO of Indeotec. ‘PV Lab has recently published 20.6 percent for heterojunction crystalline silicon exclusively using Octopus for absorber-layer deposition.’
