Spire Corp., a solar company providing turnkey solar factories and capital equipment, says its Spire Semiconductor subsidiary will provide dedicated, large-scale contract design and manufacturing capabilities to manufacturers of solar concentrator cells within its 50,000 square-foot facility in Hudson, N.H.
Spire Semiconductor's capabilities range from prototype development to full production and include photolithographic processing of III-V cell structures and deposition of broadband, dual-layer AR coatings. The subsidiary maintains more than 50 MW of expandable capacity on multiple Veeco E450 LDM, metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) reactors in state-of-the-art, clean-room space.
‘Our extensive MOCVD experience and capabilities enable us to grow a wide variety of GaAs and InP epitaxial structures,’ says Edward D. Gagnon, general manager of Spire Semiconductor. ‘With this new initiative, we have committed to providing the fastest turnaround times possible, [and] our epitaxy engineers work closely with customers to assure that every wafer meets their expectations.’
Spire's original optoelectronics division was an early pioneer in using GaAs for both concentrator solar arrays and space-system solar cells. The company developed and fabricated GaAs solar cells with record levels of efficiency as early as 1985.
