Innovative casting technology from GT Advanced Technologies for wafer producers

GT Advanced Technologies Inc., today announced that it has achieved 100 percent mono yields from ingots cast in its DSS™450 MonoCast™ technology. The new milestone in casting technology is a 75 percent increase in yields using the same furnace configuration that the company first introduced at the end of January 2012.

“We leverage our deep domain knowledge in crystal growth process systems and post processing expertise to deliver higher levels of value to our customers,” said Vikram Singh, GT’s general manager of its PV group. “This achievement allows manufacturers of traditional multicrystalline wafers to produce the highest volume of full monocrystalline wafers in their DSS furnaces without the hybrid wafer by-products that result from bricks that contain material consisting of mono and multicrystalline material.”

The DSS450 MonoCast features new advanced hardware and an industry first automatic seed retention feature that eliminates dipping and operator intervention between melt and growth helping to automate the process and enabling the production worthiness of the DSS450 MonoCast system. When combined with GT’s Acuity™ performance software, the DSS450 MonoCast produces high quality ingots run after run. Customers currently operating DSS furnaces can migrate to the new DSS450 MonoCast system through a field upgrade.