Amtech Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASYS), a global supplier of production and automation systems and related supplies for the manufacture of solar cells, semiconductors, and silicon wafers, today announced that its solar subsidiary, Tempress Systems, Inc., has shipped one of its market-leading diffusion furnace systems to a prominent solar research institute located in Asia. A second diffusion system is scheduled to ship in the March quarter to a leading solar research institute in Australia. These orders were received in fiscal 2009.
J.S. Whang, President and Chief Executive Officer of Amtech, commented, “We are pleased to see such strong interest in our solar products from these prominent solar research institutes and believe these orders validate our growing technology expertise in the front-end manufacturing of solar cells. The race to higher solar-cell conversion efficiency is intense and we believe we are well positioned to support our customers in achieving higher efficiencies and becoming a technology turnkey product supplier to the diffusion, PSG, and PECVD markets.”
Amtech Systems, Inc. manufactures capital equipment, including silicon wafer handling automation, thermal processing equipment and related consumables used in fabricating solar cells and semiconductor devices. Semiconductors, or semiconductor chips, are fabricated on silicon wafer substrates, sliced from ingots, and are part of the circuitry, or electronic components, of many products including solar cells, computers, telecommunications devices, automotive products, consumer goods, and industrial automation and control systems. The Company’s wafer handling, thermal processing and consumable products currently address the diffusion, oxidation, deposition, PECVD, and PSG removal steps used in the fabrication of solar cells, semiconductors, MEMS and the polishing of newly sliced silicon wafers.