Ascent
Solar is transitioning its thin-film products from development
into production. Production is anticipated to begin in early
2008 as we complete the development of our new manufacturing
facility. Unique advantages over earlier generations and
other technologies in the marketplace include the following:
Product is manufactured at the module level using a
proprietary monolithic integration process that enables
individual cells to be interconnected during production.
This innovation eliminates the intensive cell to cell
connections and assembly operations required with other
technologies to build up modules.
Modules will be able to be produced on durable,
light weight plastic in contrast to 1st generation products
on metal foils that were developed over 12 years ago.
The plastic substrate materials result in extremely high
specific power levels, compactness and flexibility that
enables the products to be configured into a wide variety
of rolls, foldable packs, or traditional module formats.
Ascent Solar and our parent company, ITN Energy Systems
were early developers and manufacturers of multi-megawatt,
roll-to-roll production equipment for CIGS photovoltaics
on flexible substrates. Our production tools are
now at the 4th generation level fully incorporating proprietary
intelligent processing and sensor based controls that
result in exceptional yield and uniformity in manufacturing.
Our manufacturing model is similar to a textile manufacturer
where our photovoltaic material can be converted
into many different product applications.
