“Hi, this is Jim Hisert. I just read an interesting article and I wanted to share it with you. In the 2010, October edition of PV magazine, the cover story on page 70 was pretty interesting, so here it is…
It’s called Rotatable Rotatables, and it discusses rotatable targets. The really nice thing about the article is: it goes through the physics of sputtering and gives you the background of what magnetron sputtering is all about. Then it talks about different kinds of targets. It talks about the difference between rotatable targets and planar targets, the different compositions of targets. And then it also goes into talking about the supply of indium and gallium, different target materials, as well as the difference between thermal vapor deposition and sputtering – the advantages and the disadvantages. It even wraps up with refining and recycling of the material and talks about the process overall.
So I advise that you check this out. It’s in the latest (October) edition of PV magazine. Thank you.” ~Jim
People often ask me for my opinion regarding the growth of CIGS technology because we are a major supplier of CIG (copper indium gallium) materials. Sure, I have a warm, fuzzy feeling about CIGS or CIS ruling the future thin-film technology world - but I like it when marketing people do the background research so I can just relay the good news.
Are you scaling up to a rotary sputtering system from your current planar target line?
That’s a big jump! New equipment, new materials, new process challenges. I hope we can help you make this an easier transition. One of the issues you may be concerned with is the segregation of gallium in the new targets. Fortunately we produce our rotary targets using a hybrid consolidation process. Although I cannot share the processing details of this method, I can say that it sets Indium Corporation’s targets apart from what few competitors are out there right now. We offer Copper Indium Gallium sputtering targets as well as Copper Gallium sputtering targets. If you’re interested and would like to learn more just follow this email link: solar@indium.com
The SNEC 4th International Photovoltaic Power Generation Conference & Exhibit in Shanghai is known as one of the BIG solar shows of the year. Indium Corporation’s Bill Jackson (Director of Solar Products) commented that the 2010 SNEC was: "A busy, well attended show exuding with confidence about the beginning of a worldwide economic recovery and good solar-related growth for the foreseeable future". That’s good to hear! Luckily, we had a strong team there to handle technical inquiries. Attendees from Indium Corporation included:
Bill Jackson
Thomas Tong
William Aw
Tommy Fan
Michael Qiu
David Hu
Even Indium Corporation President Greg Evans stopped by to visit the booth, to network, and to take the pulse of the industry.
This year, the SNEC was especially important for us. We had a chance to show off some of our new technology and sputtering target capability. The visitor interest seemed to mirror this thought with “…high interest in rotary CIG (Copper Indium Gallium) and Cu-Ga targets, also high interest in target bonding with NanoFoil®".
I also wanted to take a second to thank the people behind the scenes that help to make shows like this possible. Special thanks to Bill Wilson for helping to make sure our display targets looked their best, Gene Loparco and his team for dealing with the logistics of transporting our materials to/from the show, and Anita Brown for helping out with the details of coordinating the show. These Indium Corporation employees help us all shine at solar trade shows!
The Society of Vacuum Coaters 2010 technical conference took place last week, so this week I’ve been rounding up the display sputtering targets and evaporation sources to display at our next event in China. If you’re not familiar with it, the SVC (Society of Vacuum Coaters) conference focuses on deposition materials, equipment, and processes. The Indium Corporation has a specific interest in both sputtering and thermal evaporation since we provide materials for these processes. There are too many applications to list, but some specific sputtering/evaporation apps that are close to my heart are:
For a interesting and very technical introduction to CIGS (copper indium gallium selenium) technology, check out the 3rd quarter 2009 edition of Photovoltaics International Magazine – page 112.This article by ZSW is a good primer to get you up to speed with this thin-film technology.(This blows the Wikipedia "CIGS solar" description out of the water!)
The article is a good read for those of you looking into CIGS technology because it goes well beyond the overview of what CIGS is with discussion of chemical and structural analysis of thin-film cells.
Testing standardization is important to all products, although it is often overseen when new technologies are first introduced. Low temperature metallization paste is a product that fits this "new technology" catagory. Note: Low temperature metallization paste is a material that is used in various thin film technology applications like CIGS (Copper Indium Gallium) solar cells. The picture shown to the right features 3 different test patterns - which yeild very different test results.
2. 关于公司裏的开会。 前天中午看牙医，他又准备给我嘴巴里面打麻醉针了。"怎么这次又打？我还以为这次的小治疗不需要了。怎么每次下午我要开会发言，都会遇上你的麻醉针？叫我等会怎么说话呀？"牙医问"会议很重要吗？"我郑重其事的回答"当然！无论和谁开会，每一个会议都是重要的。因为除了自己能给会议带来value之外，也是展现自己的机会，别人也会在心中评价你的…"牙医笑道"Such a corporate girl! Please be quiet for now."然后他毫不手軟一针下来，我这个talking-box (话匣子)也慢慢地少话了…Anyway, 在公司里面，对于每一个会议都认真对待，做好准备，應該沒錯的。下次我看牙医前要问清楚是否要打麻醉针了，不然很有可能会一边说话一边不自觉地流口水的。
對了，在展會中，有個有趣的事情。 展會已經開始了，有一個豪華的展台和一個小小的不起眼的展台。但是，這兩個展台確有天壤之別。先不說別的，就說第一印象，人們一眼就能從小展台中看出兩個基本的重要信息：這是什麽公司，是買什麽的。但是如果你在豪華的大展台外轉悠很久，也無法得到這兩個基本信息。 這應該是很好的一個實例---花小钱，办好了事 VS 花大钱，办不好事。Cheers!
Copper-indium-gallium-diselenide is one of the more promising thin film photovoltaic solar cell technologies. The "gold standard" for depositing the absorber layer in this photovoltaic is evaporation, and the current champion efficiency of 19.9% was achieved by vacuum evaporation of the absorber layer at NREL. Several companies are in pilot production of CIGS thin film photovoltaic solar cells using evaporation as well as sputtering, another physical vapor deposition (PVD) process.
Since both evaporation and sputtering require expensive and complex high vacuum equipment, other CIGS manufacturers are exploring non-PVD processes such as mixed oxide, mixed selenide or metal alloy nanoparticle printing. Another interesting, but less researched non-PVD process is electroplating. Controlled thicknesses of indium, copper, gallium and selenium can be sequentially be deposited onto a substrate using the respective individual plating bath, and the multilayer stack fused to form the CIGS alloy.
However, it would be ideal if the CIGS alloy could be electroplated in a single step from one plating bath containing all metals. Such alloy electroplating is relatively straight forward, if the individual metals have similar electropotentials. For example, tin and lead have similar electropotentials, and the electroplating of 60% tin and 40% lead solder alloy from one solution is routine. However, copper, indium, gallium and selenium all have varying electropotentials. While the development of a CIGS plating bath is technically possible by the proper selection of chelating/complexing agents and other chemical additives, developing the formulation chemistry to produce a stable and robust production electroplating bath presents a challenging task. The company who meets this challenge will have a winning process.
It was interesting to learn that CIGS semiconductor is catalyzing breakthroughs in advanced image sensors for digital cameras.
According to The Nikkei Business Daily (Tuesday, Feb 5 '08 edition) National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and Rohm Co. have jointly developed a new image sensor by fabricating a thin film of copper indium gallium di-selenide (CIGS) above the silicon substrate. The inventors were able to overcome the current leakage problem associated with CIGS. This sensor is more than six times as sensitive as a conventional silicon-based device and is also capable of detecting light across a broader spectrum, from visible light to near infrared light (up to a wavelength of 1,300 nanometers). 90% of the surface of this sensor is capable of detecting light which is triple the normal amount.
According to Nikkei "this combination of features can boost the shutter speed of digital cameras and provide the kind of nighttime vision useable for monitoring cameras and car-mounted safety systems".
People often ask me for my opinion regarding the growth of CIGS technology because we are a major supplier of 
Corporation included:
For a interesting and very technical introduction to CIGS (copper indium gallium selenium) technology, check out 
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