May 18 2007
Veeco Instruments Inc., a leading supplier of instrumentation to the nanoscience community, today announced the sale and shipment of its new Dektak(R) 150 Surface Profiler to PrimeStar Solar, an emerging manufacturer of cadmium telluride (CdTe) photovoltaic (PV) modules for the solar energy market. The Dektak 150 delivers increased resolution for measuring thin films to 10 nanometers and below to meet the evolving requirements of today's photovoltaic cell applications.
"We chose Veeco's Dektak 150 stylus profiler because it has the great combination of measurement precision, performance versatility and an attractive price point," says Dr. Fred Seymour, PV Technology Director for PrimeStar Solar. "This is important for us since we are aiming to quickly provide the solar market with very low cost solar PV modules. As we continue our ramp up for production, we will rely heavily on the Dektak to calibrate our coatings."
John Wissinger, Vice President, General Manager, Veeco Optical Products, commented, "We believe that the Dektak 150 system provides the best measurement repeatability, application flexibility, and ease of use of any stylus profiler on the market. We are pleased to support PrimeStar Solar in their PV development. The Dektak is a superb tool to monitor thin films of advanced PV's as well as critical surface roughness, key for optimal absorption of photons, and thus efficiency. We are seeing significant opportunities with more than 10 Dektak systems sold into PV in the last 18 months, with increased interest going forward."
The new robust design of the Dektak 150 incorporates a cast-aluminum frame and several vibration and noise reduction features to provide the lowest possible noise floor for measuring extremely thin films. In addition, the Dektak 150 is able to measure thin film stress with longer scan lengths up to 55 millimeters and a larger vertical range up to 1 millimeter. The thin film stress measurement software automatically calculates compressive or tensile stress. Plus, the Dektak 150 offers 3D imaging capabilities to map a user-defined surface area to perform in-depth analysis of surface defects and area roughness with Veeco's exclusive Vision(R) 3D analysis software