Nano-based glass TCO-coating tool wins Asia order

Finnish firms Beneq and Glaston have sold a tool for applying transparent conductive oxide (TCO) coatings, based on nanomaterial thin-films, to a customer in Asia for preparing glass for photovoltaic (PV) production.

The line is designed for manufacture of TCO-coated glass for the solar industry. Usually TCO coatings a produced by sputtering indium tin oxide (ITO) onto glass at high temperatures. The line designed by Beneq in collaboration Glaston, a Tampere-based supplier of glass processing machinery, uses a process that deposits liquid droplets of tin oxide on glass heated, to the point where the droplets vapourise to provide a TCO coating, to prepare glass for the fabrication of solar cells.

Properties

The nAero technique can be adjusted to vary droplet size and distribution, in order to achieve precise properties of functional thin-films.

The line will be delivered to the client in early 2012. Beneq established a partnership with Glaston in September 2010 to incorporate its nAero system into Glaston's heat treatment equipment for solar glass substrates. The Asia deal marks the first for the two companies' collaboration and is worth €14 million.

Finance

As well as solar Beneq is targeting flexible and organic electronics markets with its advanced industrial thin-film coating equipment. Besides TCO glass and coatings Beneq's tools can be used to apply barrier and passivation layers in flexible electronic devices, displays and LED and OLED solid state lighting.

Two months ago the company secured €9 million to help it finance the development of its tools for industrial-scale production in solar and other cleantech markets. The company, which was set up in 2005, is commercialising two types of aerosol coating technologies and an atomic layer deposition (ALD) system also.