Vacuum for solar applications

Leybold’s production-proven vacuum solutions enhance the purity, quality and safety of solar cells and panels.

Solar energy is increasingly important, given the ever-growing need for energy and the necessity of limiting the consumption of fossil fuels in order to limit global warming. Globally, there has been an increased focus on renewable energies, such as wind energy and solar energy. Due to increasing demand, research on solar cell technologies has been intense, leading to significant cost reductions and technological improvements to the efficiency of solar cells and panels in addition to increased lifespans.

Solar panels are one important step on the road to the green generation of energy. They could, for example, also become the electricity source for electrolyzers generating green hydrogen for future fleets of vehicles driven by fuel cells.

Leybold offers the ideal product for each vacuum step in the solar production process, whether wafer-based, thin film or a combination of both, as we see in the emerging technology of heterojunction.

Our vacuum expertise - your advantage

We offer the perfect vacuum solution for the entire solar production process. Depending on specific and individual process requirements, various pump types and specific adapted pump solutions are available or can be customized according to the customer’s specifications.

Dry compressing vacuum pumps

In solar production, purity and oil-free solutions are essential. Dry-compressing pumps are oil emission-free and avoid the potential risk of oil migration into the process chamber, thus ensuring the highest process quality for the production system. They optimize uptimes, minimize cost and maintenance and optimize service life. Using Leybold’s dry pump range ensures the production of high-quality solar cells.

PowerBoost

PowerBoost and the PowerBoost Plus are developed and optimized for fast cycle applications and feature pressures of up to 0.01 mbar. These systems are suitable for all interval-based applications requiring extremely fast pump down speeds followed by idle periods. Autodetection of cycle times also makes them extremely flexible and adaptable to rotating products and variable conditions.

Combination of a dry and oil free screw / roots technology -> Capable of handling dust and optimized for fast pump downs
Small Footprint -> “One set less” compared to pump configurations from the past
Very low noise -> Caused by an intelligent pump system that understands what the coater will do next
Energy-Saving -> The innovative energy saver unit reduces power consumption.

PowerBoost

SCREWLINE

With its internal rotor cooling, the SCREWLINE SP 630’s dry screw pump is ideal for demanding solar lamination applications, as it can pump monomers, oligomers and softener degas out of EVA (Ethylene-Vinyl-Acetate), POE (Poly-Octene-Ethylene) and PVB (Poly-Vinyl-Butyral) polymer materials.

SP 630 dry screw technology -> Production-proven technology for solar lamination since 2004
Best-in-class pumps for a variety of lamination processes
Air cooling -> Quick & easy installation
Pumping chamber can be cleaned onsite -> No downtimes due to vacuum pumps

SCREWLINE

DRYVAC

Our DRYVAC is a compact, water-cooled and quiet dry screw pump that can be installed on heavy industrial environment. The pump has been designed to handle the gases used in PECVD and PVD thin film coating processes like CIGS, CdTe and Hetero Junction..

Dry and oil free screw technology -> Capable of handling dust, doping gases and fluorine etching
Extremely compact -> Easy to install on production lines
Very low noise -> Improved working environment
Low heat emission -> Can be localized to improved machine performance
Energy-Saving -> The innovative energy saver unit reduces power consumption.

DRYVAC

RUVAC

Pumping large quantities of gas or achieving and maintaining low vacuum pressures requires powerful booster pumps. Our classic RUVAC WA(U) and WS(U) booster pumps, along with our innovative and hermetically-sealed RUVAC WH(U) can either work with a direct drive or be driven by a frequency converter, which allows them to run permanently at a higher rotational speed to reach higher pumping speeds. With a capacity of 250 up to 7000 m³/h, we can supply solar vacuum systems of all sizes.

Dry and oil-free roots technology -> Capable of handling dust, doping gases and fluorine etching
Very compact -> Easy to install on top of a roughing pump
Production proven: The standard workhorse for all solar applications
Low heat emission -> Water and air-cooled versions available

RUVAC

For the third stage of a solar laminator, CLAWVAC pumps with stainless steel claws are ideal due to their on-site cleaning capabilities. They’re a good technical alternative to the well-established SCREWLINE SP 630 F

Stainless steel claws -> Corrosion free, even with high humidity and rests of monomers, oligomers and softeners (not sure what you mean here)
Minimal maintenance requirements -> Low total cost of ownership

CLAWVAC

VARODRY

With its 100% oil-free operation, our VARODRY not only improves vacuum cleanliness, it also achieves longer operating times than oil-sealed pumps, thanks to its robustness in demanding solar coating and solar crystal pulling & growing processes.

Dry screw technology -> Proven production for inline solar coating (cryo pump regeneration, buffer, process and annealing) and crystal pulling & growing (Silicon Carbide)
Air-cooled -> Quick & easy installation
Minimal maintenance requirements -> Low total cost of ownership

VARODRY

SOGEVAC

Our industry-leading and time-proven SOGEVAC oil-sealed rotary vane pumps are the oil-sealed standard on huge architectural glass coating inline PVD systems. It’s an efficient pump for fast down on load locks and features a lower price in comparison to dry screw pumps..

Best-in-class rotary vane pumps -> Proven technology for PVD inline coaters on load lock
High pumping speeds at all pressures -> Fast and efficient pump down with no impact on pump performance
Low operating temperatures and optimized oil for load lock applications -> Longer oil exchange intervals
State-of-the-art exhaust filtering technology -> Clean gas in the exhaust area

SOGEVAC

TRIVAC

Our TRIVAC - PFPE versions are the standard oil-sealed solution for solar crystal pulling & growing and especially for silicon carbide applications.

Best-in-class rotary vane pumps -> Production-proven technology for crystal pulling & growing
Used all around the world -> In addition to the future technology of silicon carbide
Air-cooled -> Quick & easy installation

TRIVAC

Helium leak detector

Leybold offers a full range of PHOENIX Helium Leak Detectors and customized special systems

PHOENIX QUADRO -> A portable helium leak detector, either with an oil-sealed or dry running Leybold vacuum pump
PHOENIX VARIO -> The smallest member of the PHOENIX range, which comes with no vacuum system.
Customized vacuum systems: Please contact Leybold and we’ll make it happen.

Helium leak detectors

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