August 28, 2007 — Veeco Instruments Inc. has introduced a line of new production-scale PV-Series Thermal Deposition Sources, enabling copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin film solar manufacturers to more quickly transition from pilot to full-scale solar-cell production. Veeco’s new line of thermal deposition sources for CIGS includes PV-Series SUMO (for copper, indium and gallium) and PV-Series Valved (for selenium and sulfur) for R & D and production environments.

The company’s new offerings “represent the industry’s first commercially available production-scale thermal deposition solution for thin film solar manufacturing,” said Jeffrey Hohn, Vice President and General Manager, Veeco MBE Operations. “We believe that our PV-Series sources will accelerate our customers’ production ramp, reduce capital costs and provide more reliable operation, compared to currently available sources or solar cell manufacturers’ in-house custom designs.”

In addition to the new thermal deposition sources, Veeco’s suite of solar technology solutions includes Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) systems for multi-junction solar cells and a complete suite of thin film and surface roughness metrology systems, including atomic force microscopes, stylus profilers and optical interferometer technology.