(Source: Business Wire)At its annual solar analyst and press briefing today at the Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (PVSEC), Europe's largest solar tradeshow, Applied Materials executives provided updates on Applied's solar strategy, including highlights of the company's business and technology roadmaps for both crystalline silicon (c-Si) and thin-film solar photovoltaics (PV). The company also announced a number of new c-Si solar PV products.

"We are seeing substantial progress in the global industrialization of the solar industry," said Mike Splinter, chairman and CEO of Applied Materials. "The technology and products Applied is delivering allow our customers to improve solar panel efficiency and reduce cost per watt, leading us rapidly toward a future where solar proves itself as the cleanest, most logical and cost-effective way of generating power."

Preparing for the Crystalline Silicon Factory of the Future

In his keynote presentation, Dr. Mark Pinto, chief technology officer and general manager of Applied's Energy and Environmental Solutions Group (EES), highlighted how factories that make c-Si solar panels are becoming more technically advanced, with new process steps and automation boosting solar panel efficiency, lowering manufacturing cost, and driving up factory scale. New tools from Applied's Precisions Wafering Systems and Baccini Cell Systems divisions are enabling thinner wafers, precision alignment and deposition, faster processing times and higher wafer throughput. Advanced automation is leading to better tool-to-tool process management, substantial material cost reductions and higher quality. The semiconductor industry serves as an example of how increasing investments in manufacturing technology can produce cost-effective gains in productivity and output and enable dramatic cost per watt reductions for end-users.

Pinto contrasted today's mainstream c-Si factory running approximately 1,500 wafers per hour at 16% efficiency - with as much as 2% line breakage - with the "crystalline factory of the future." With substantial improvements in equipment and full automation of facilities by 2012, Pinto predicted that output will double to more than 3,000 wafers per hour at greater than 20% efficiency - with breakage cut by more than half.

"To drive performance and reduce costs, the industry will become more technology-intensive, with new materials, applications, integration schemes, and factory automation and control," said Pinto. "In the factory of the future, Applied expects to address over 55% of the c-Si PV solar manufacturing opportunity.