1366, which is building its first large-scale wafer factory in New York, says it can now make wafers that are thinner in most places but thicker in “stress-critical” areas.
Such three-dimensionality would be impossible for traditional wafer makers, which typically saw silicon ingots into PV wafers, in a process Massachusetts-based 1366 sees as wasteful and inefficient.
Through its proprietary Direct Wafer process, 1366 claims the ability to “locally control” the thickness of the wafers it makes, so they are the standard 180-200 microns thick in vulnerable regions, like the wafer’s perimeter and the ribs where busbar soldering will occur, but 100-120 microns thick in other areas.
That reduces the amount of silicon needed to produce PV wafers to around 1.5 grams/watt, the company says.
“The 3D wafer features allows us to the meet the industry’s anticipated need for thinner wafers without compromising existing standards or asking manufacturers to abandon their existing manufacturing lines,” says chief executive Frank van Mierlo.
Massachusetts-based 1366 believes its Direct Wafer process will entrench the dominance of silicon-based PV manufacturers, by allowing them to produce wafers much more cheaply. That, in turn, would lower the cost of solar energy across the board, although it could pose a challenge to thin-film solar companies like First Solar and Solar Frontier.
Launched out of technology developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1366 has built significant momentum over the past year, including landing a 700MW wafer supply deal with Hanwha Q Cells and signing a “strategic partnership” with German polysilicon giant Wacker Chemie.
1366’s 250MW wafer factory is due online next year in upstate New York, and the company intends to expand the plant to at least 3GW in the years ahead.
