Solar Energy

The Technical Ceramics business of MACOR® Machining China provides a variety of products in the supply chain of Photovoltaic (PV) solar energy. Our wide range of engineered materials and assemblies provide robust, inert, and thermally stable solutions that allow our customers to achieve their increasingly demanding goals.

Our hard wearing custom Performance Pyrolytic Boron Nitride (PBN) crucibles and boats allow rapid vapour deposition of CIGS (CuInGaSe) PV thin films. The material is inert, has low wetting to alloys and is resistant to thermal shock. We use Performance PBN to make complex shaped crucibles and can also deposit on top of graphite heaters for high thermal efficiency. The advantage of using a PBN coated heater is that the it ensures less graphite in final products.

High purity ceramic offers superior performance to that of stainless steel for lifting, stacking and aligning glass panels in Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) or sputter depositing, processing and annealing. For example, ceramic pins are used as locators and separators between key components inside the PVD reaction module chamber.

The Technical Ceramics business makes high purity aluminium oxide formulations which are strong at elevated temperatures; they don’t buckle like with metal parts do. Their chemical stability eliminates the possibility of process contamination on the surface of the glass.

Our high purity aluminium oxide AL-995 alumina is used for handling silicon wafers during processing. The material is a good choice to provide reliable support because it can be precision-machined into shape and has a coefficient of thermal expansion close to that of the wafer.

Our Stourport facility provides silicon nitride products that have been tailored to suit polysilicon manufacturing processes. The material maintains its strength in high temperature, highly corrosive atmospheres and is electrically insulating.

The Technical Ceramics business engineers custom solutions in all shapes and sizes, with a wide range of tolerances and attributes. We work closely with our customers to design products to specific requirements.

Typical materials:

  • Alumina
  • Ceramic-to-metal assemblies
  • Solar lifting bars

Typical products:

  • PBN crucibles
  • Wafer handling
  • Lifting bars made from our 99.% alumina

Typical applications:

  • Thin film deposition
  • Polysilicon wafers
  • Defect detection equipment

To see how we can assist you with your solar energy project, contact us today.