AIXTRON AG today announced an order for one AIX 2800G4 (15x4") Planetary Reactor® system from the CESI RICERCA a company based in Milan, Italy. The order was received in December 2008 and the reactor will be delivered in the fourth quarter 2009.
The new system will be used to develop multi-junction solar cells forming an integral part of a pan-European collaboration, the ‘Apollon Project’ of the Seventh Framework Programme [FP7/2007-2013] under the Grant Agreement 213514, which supports the transfer of new technologies to mass production. The aim of the Apollon Project is the development and realization of an MOCVD technology for highly efficient multi-junction solar cells.
Dr. Gianluca Timò, Apollon Project Director at CESI RICERCA, comments, “For this project we are developing triple-junction and multi-junction solar cells with new materials and so we needed an MOCVD system with sufficient flexibility. The AIXTRON Planetary Reactor® design is perfect in this respect plus it has a wide process window thanks to its new inlet geometry and reactor design. We will also be able to easily tune the system for our new processes and materials. In particular, with this system the testing of new hydride and metalorganic sources will be straightforward. Such features together with the advanced in-situ monitoring technologies and flexible wafer configurations up to multiple 8.5” will ensure that our development program can investigate all possibilities smoothly and efficiently.”
The five-year duration APOLLON Project will develop High Concentration Point Focus and Dense Array Concentrator Photovoltaic (CPV) systems that are based on monolithic and discrete multi-junction technologies. It has a final target cost of 2 €/Wp.
CESI RICERCA S.p.A. was established at the end of 2005 and has been operating since January 1 2006 with the mission to develop research activities funded at the national and international level in the electricity and energy field. The mission of CESI RICERCA is to develop research projects of general interest to the national electricity system, focusing on applied research and with a systemoriented approach. In particular, CESI RICERCA has a valuable experience on high efficiency Multijunction (MJ) solar cells - based on III-V compound - from space to terrestrial application, starting from material growth, characterization up to cell modeling and testing. The company is also involved in research and demonstration of CPV system, renewable energy hybrid systems for remote community electrification, as well as on integration of photovoltaic into buildings.