WAFERLINE EQUIPMENT LIST

POLYSILICON TO WAFERS

The following Diagram gives an overview of the equipment in Wafer Fabrication. It is the Wafer Fabrication turnkey
Line of GT Solar. The stages are from Crucible Preparation to Wafer Inspection and Sorting.
Crucible Preparation

Company Vesuvius Ceradyne Inc GT Solar

Model RTU SOLAR Crucibles PV casting
Crucibles
Technical Specifications
Bricks 25 , 16
Size mm 156*156 , 210
*210
Maximum 1650° C
Temperature
Ready to use Yes
Supports lower quality Provides Coating
feedstock technology

Nabertherm: no information available about their crucibles

Polysilicon Preparation

Poly Silicon Chunk Etching, Cleaning & Drying

Company GT Solar Stangl MEI LLC

Model GT-FSE1000 MATERIA PCE Automated Chunk
Polysilicon Cleaning
Throughput 60 to 240 kg/hr 500 to p.a. to 2500 to
p.a.
Utilization 24/7, 365 days/year
Availability Uptime > 95 % Uptime > 95 %

Batch Size 10 kg to 40 kg 25 kg 20kg

Typical Cycle Time 5 - 30 min 6mins
Crucible

Sand blasting

No Equipment Identified yet

Ingot Inspection

Company DWFritz Automation, Inc.

Model Silicon Ingot Inspection System
Technical Specifications
INSPECTIONS PERFORMED: Lifetime, Weight, Length, Diameter, End Perpendicularity,
Conductivity, Bar-Code Confirmation
MATERIAL HANDLING: Ingots supported by V-blocks moving on linear track
system
THROUGHPUT: Approx. cycle time 3 Minutes including bar code etch

No. of machines 1
Ingot Squaring/Bricking

Company Meyer Burger Meyer Berger Applied Materials Diamond Wire

Brickmaster Applied HCT Squarer SQ300 (squarer)
Model BandSaw BS 805 Wiresaw
market
introduction 2004 2005 –
Max. size (length × 890 × 890 × 650 890 × 890 × 520 mm 8 × Ø 210 × 520
width × height) mm 850 × 850 × 290 mm mm
250 μm structured ,
diameter - opt. Diamond wire 250 μm structured 140 - 330 μm
dimension
variation for size of
156 mm ± 0.2 mm Max. ± 0.25 mm 0.25 mm
roughness RA < 0.9 μm < 3 μm < 3 μm
Throughput (156 ×
156 × 250 mm
brick) 7 h for 1 Ingot 8h Per cycle 2.7 bricks/h 5 bricks/h
No. of Furnaces
per Squarer (450
kg Charge) 7 7 6 10
time to change
band 15 - 20 min _ 1h ~ 15 - 20 min
typical uptime > 95% 95% 98%
time of delivery 4 - 6 months 8 - 10 months 18 - 20 weeks
price $833,930.00 $840,000.00 $980,000.00
Support JYT , JZ- Diamond Wire is Support JYT , JZ-550
550 Furnace optional Furnace
Air Conditioned Diamond squarer
room is trials have attained a
advantageous high level of maturity
900 mm high ingot
support

Brick Line
 Fully Automated lines for Grinding, scanning & measuring, Cropping & auto gluing for the wafer Slicing

Company Meyer Berger Arnold

Model BrickLine S BrickLineM BrickLine L Machine Center
Brick throughout /year 31'025 bricks 62'050 bricks 93'075 bricks
Capacity Brickline/ Year Max. 65 MW Max. 130 MW Max. 195 MW 250mw Capacity
Ramp-up options
Robot 1 2 2
Grinding 1 2 2 Diamond Grinding
Cropping 1 2 3
surface finish Ra 0.03micron
Uptime 99% (Claimed by MB) 97%
Scanning & Measuring IR- Inspection, combined 3D measurement IR Imaging and MLCT
options Lifetime and resistivity inspection measurement
Laser Bar-coding
Gluing Section 1 Auto gluing centre
Wafer formats 125/156/210. No Changeover time for processing
Key Benefits Integration with BrickMaster and Wiresaws of Meyer Berger
Space required 150m2 274m2 300m2

Support for
Diamond wires in
the next 2 years

Slurry Recovery Unit

Company Applied Materials
Model Applied HCT Slurry Recovery Unit
Recovers both silicon carbide (SiC)
abrasive and the coolant fluid
stand-alone unit as well as recycling
plants
Features
50% reduction in slurry cost
> 30% reduction in wafering
consumables cost
Metallkraft & Landteknikk SiC Processing AG
sic/peg slurry handling systems SiC Processing
100% recycling of Slurry 75% to 90% usable SiC and
85% to 95% PEG
Recycling plants (designed by Logistics & Slurry Supply
Landteknikk) System
recycled slurry
retains fully its cutting abilities
No Chemicals added cost savings in wafering up to
20-30%

Prewashing & Separating

Company Rena Stangl Schmid

Model PreWaClean & WaSep Pre-Clean & Deglue Wafer Pre Cleaning
System
Throughput 4 runs per hour 7200 wafers per 4 wafer blocks per hour (upto

loading length 1080 mm per run hour 1000 mm per block)