1 February 2011

Russia’s Saturn expands PV production with 15x4" Aixtron system

Deposition equipment maker Aixtron SE of Herzogenrath, Germany says that in fourth-quarter 2010 it received a new order from Saturn Joint Stock Company (Saturn JSC) of Krasnodar, Russia for an AIX 2800 G4-R metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) reactor in 15x4-inch wafer configuration, including an automated wafer transfer system.

Following delivery in second-quarter 2011, the new system will be used to produce gallium arsenide (GaAs) solar cell epitaxial materials for the Russian space market. The reactor will be commissioned by the Aixtron Europe support team in a dedicated facility alongside the existing Aixtron reactor at the Saturn JSC production plant.

Saturn ordered its first Aixtron MOCVD GaAs system for the production of solar cells in April 2006 (an 8x4-inch AIX 2600G3 — the first solar cell production MOCVD system in Russia).

“Our company has been very satisfied with the excellent performance and ease of use we have enjoyed with our existing Aixtron system,” says Saturn’s director general Anatoly Skursky. “The service support we have received from the Aixtron Europe Process Team was of a very high standard, too. As promised, they enabled us to reach full production status in a very short time,” he adds. “Moving up to the 15x4-inch configuration system will give us even better productivity as well as the uniformity, performance and reliability we have come to expect from Aixtron equipment.”

Saturn has been developing and producing solar cells and solar arrays for space applications since 1971. In this period, more than 1200 spacecraft were provided with solar arrays. Not only most Russian spacecrafts but also many foreign spacecraft are equipped with solar arrays and storage batteries produced by Saturn.

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