Industry report 2011 - Suppliers for Photovoltaics: Manz AG

Manz AG –
From an Expert in Automation Systems …

Manz AG – passion for efficiency

Manz AG from Reutlingen, Germany, is a leading global high-tech equipment manufacturer. Over the past few years, the company has developed from an automation specialist to a provider of integrated system solutions for the production of crystalline silicon solar cells and thin-film solar modules, as well as the manufacturing of flat panel displays. A new business area is the development and manufacture of production systems for lithium-ion batteries.

The group, established in 1987, is headed by company founder Dieter Manz and has been publicly listed in Germany since 2006. Manz operates production facilities in Germany, China, Taiwan, Slovakia and Hungary. In addition, it has sales and service branches in the United States, South Korea and India. At the end of 2010, Manz AG had around 1,750 employees, including 800 in Asia. Sales in the last business year exceeded 181 million Euro.

Driven by the company’s new slogan, “passion for efficiency”, Manz engineers promise to provide their customers from various future key industries with evermore efficient manufacturing systems. Therefore, Manz is continuously optimizing its product portfolio. The aim is to achieve highly reliable production processes onthe customer side while steadily improving performance parameters for products manufactured on Manz equipment. This makes the Manz Group an important driver of innovation, helping to achieve breakthroughs in key technologies of our times, such as sustainable power generation, displays for global communication needs and e-mobility. Manz focuses its R&D efforts on production systems for the photovoltaics industry, flat panel displays and lithium-ion batteries. Research facilities are located in Germany, Taiwan and Israel.

In the summer of 2010, Manz signed a cooperation agreement with Würth Solar, Schwäbisch Hall, Germany, which gives Manz access to exclusive know-how in CIGS thin-film technology. CIGS modules are currently considered the most efficient on the market. Thanks to this agreement, Manz is the first manufacturer in the world offering a turnkey production line for CIGS solar modules that can be operated profitably today.

… to an Expert in Integrated Solutions!

Crystalline solar cell manufacturing

As it becomes more efficient, the company is focusing more and more closely on the entire value chain, from the production processes to the efficiency of the final products and cost-effectiveness for the user. Originally known as a manufacturer of robotics and automation solutions, Manz has today become a one-stop-supplier that offers almost the entire range of production systems for manufacturing crystalline solar cells. The benefit for customers is that the individual production stages are perfectly harmonized with one another, creating a seamless end-to-end process. This saves investment costs and energy in the production phase and also makes the solar cells more efficient, making them more profitable for the end customer.

Integration has played an increasingly important role in the manufacture of solar cells for some time now. Manz has prepared itself for this change, and is now able to offer up to 70% of the products and technologies required for a production line in its core business area of photovoltaics.

Combining the selective emitter process with high-precision printing of the conductor paths on the solar cells is just one example of how perfect dovetailing of two production stages can improve cell efficiency.

To effectively increase the number of phosphorus atoms under the contact surfaces, a laser drives phosphorus atoms into the silicon semiconductor, enriching a narrow area of the crystal. Manz is the only manufacturer to perform this laser process in a single step, making expensive masks unnecessary. This selective emitter process makes a crystalline solar cell up to 0.5% more efficient. Manz was honored with the Intersolar Award 2011 for this technology.

The benefits of the selective emitter become apparent only if the subsequent printing of the conductor tracks onto the selective emitter’s narrow strips is extremely precise. With the HAP 2400, Manz AG has developed the world’s fastest, most accurate screen printer, in which cameras detect the brightly shining strips of the selective emitter on the silicon crystal and align them with the strip mask of the screen printer, which is also controlled by cameras, to an accuracy of significantly less than ten µm.

Passion for Efficiency!

Thin-film solar module production

When it comes to manufacturing thin-film solar modules, the Manz Group sets international standards as the global market leader for laser structuring equipment.

With the inline precision control system (IPCS) Manz has developed a technology that combines high-precision scribing with fast image analysis. Manz engineers have thus succeeded in minimizing a solar module’s “dead area” and in significantly increasing the solar module’s efficiency. The IPCS increases the precision of laser scribing facilities significantly. It reduces the dead area to under 160 µm. By comparison, the dead area of solar modules fabricated with the laser scribes of competitors is up to 500 µm, almost three times as high as with Manz.

In addition to equipment for laser structuring and laser edge isolation for all current thin-film, Manz develops and supplies manufacturing equipment for mechanical structuring as well.

Manz also offers complete solutions for cleaning flat glass and coated glass substrates, as well as wet chemical etching systems for pre-etching the TCO layer. In order to meet stringent standards of quality, Manz has expanded its range of products to include inspection tools and measurement solutions. Fab automation systems, conveyor systems, and handling systems complete the range of Manz products.

With its entry into the field of vacuum coating technology, Manz has taken a further key step towards realizing its strategic goal – achieving the highest possible level of integration of individual machines and processes, as well as commanding a 90% share of the value chain for the machines developed and manufactured within the group.

Manz unites its entire range of services under the “Total fab solution” concept.

Enabling CIGS Mass-Production!

Manz CIGSfab

Manz AG signed a know-how licensing and strategic alliance agreement with Würth Solar GmbH & Co. KG in 2010. This gives Manz the exclusive right of use to Würth Solar’s CIGS production technology and means that it is now the only provider who can currently offer an integrated, fully productive production line for CIGS solar modules – the Manz CIGSfab – that can be operated cost efficiently.

Würth Solar also contributes more than ten years of experience in developing and producing CIGS thin-film modules to the strategic alliance. Thus Manz is the only supplier who can provide the factory set-up and run-off with personnel with years of production experience.

The existing contractual relationship with Würth Solar and the Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg (ZSW – Center for solar energy and hydrogen research) means that Manz also has exclusive access to their research results regarding CIGS modules on glass substrates. The ZSW currently holds the world record for CIGS technology, with the highest efficiency of cells recorded to date (20.3%).

As a result, Manz is not only proficient at implementing the highly complex CIGS process in a fully integrated production line, but also offers its clients the prospect of significantly increasing efficiency above 12.8%.

The Manz CIGSfab has a multitude of other major advantages, such as low production costs due to the high internal value creation and highest cost reduction potential due to the unique cooperation with Würth Solar and the ZSW. Furthermore, with Würth Solar, Manz can even offer its customers a purchaser for their modules.

Manz is convinced that the collaboration of a renowned research institute, the most experienced manufacturer of CIGS modules and one of the world’s leading equipment manufacturers, will lead CIGS technology to a breakthrough and open up an enormous market potential.

CIGS technology, which was previously seen as too expensive and very difficult to control, will become an industry standard through the Manz CIGSfab.