NORTH VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwired – May 17, 2017) – Aurora Solar Technologies Inc. (“Aurora”)(“Company”) (TSX VENTURE:ACU)(OTCBB:AACTF)(FRANKFURT:A82), a leader in inline measurement and control technology for the photovoltaic manufacturing industry, is pleased to announce that the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office has allowed its infrared-based measurement patent entitled “Non-Contacting System and Method for Measuring the Dopant Content of Semiconductor Material and Method of Determining the Impact of a Semiconductor Material Fabrication Line upon Semiconductor Wafer.” Although the Company is currently focused on the photovoltaic industry, other applications covered under this patent include any process where impurities are added to semiconductor material for the purpose of modifying its electrical properties, such as light emitting diodes (“LEDs”), integrated circuits and flat panel displays.
This is the sixth national patent granted or allowed from several of the Company’s Patent Cooperation Treaty applications which continue to progress through patent offices around the world. Other major markets where patents have been allowed include China, Japan, Korea, the United States and the European Union.
Gaining Momentum
With recent volume purchases from two global leaders in solar cell manufacturing, Aurora’s Decima and Veritas products are building significant market momentum and traction. The top-tier manufacturers using our products have built their reputations on delivering high-efficiency products with superior quality, and our products are now an important part of their operations. They use the Decima and Veritas systems to rapidly bring new production capacity to full capacity and to quickly and accurately identify production variations that can significantly impact the electrical properties of the wafers long before they become finished solar cells. By reducing such variation and avoiding the production of low power cells, manufacturers save significant costs in managing excessive module power ratings, inventory and warranty provisions as well as saving downstream materials/labor costs (silver electrode paste, antireflective coating, etc.).
Using Aurora’s patented, infrared characterization system in the Decima products, Aurora’s customers can measure the critical properties of 100% of the wafers early in the manufacturing process while making no contact with the sensitive wafers. A typical batch of 400 to 800 wafers can be measured in a matter of minutes. This contrasts with the traditional practice of removing three or four wafers from each batch for a manual test that is labor intensive, takes hours to perform, can damage the wafers and does not provide sufficient information to reduce production variations. Other automated methods available in the market offer limited and less accurate performance and have been unable to help operators identify where the poor wafers are coming from in real time.
With the rich data available from the Decima characterization system, Aurora’s Veritas visualization software then pinpoints the areas within the manufacturing equipment that are causing variation, thus enabling operators and engineers to make real time adjustments to mitigate this variation.
Independent Customer Validation
Aurora recently completed an independent validation by a confidential customer in Asia who measured the value of Aurora’s Decima hardware and Veritas software on one operating line over a full calendar year. The results indicate a significant improvement in average cell power by correcting poor furnace operation and bringing new production equipment on line faster resulting in a payback of their investment in Aurora’s solutions in a matter of months.
These results support Aurora’s effort to expand its product line to include a higher-value, integrated Quality Control System that group similar cells into batches and control the downstream processes to produce consistent cells of the highest possible power output.
New Product Development – Veritas Quality Control System
Aurora has initiated development and testing of an enhanced Veritas Quality Control System with a key customer in Asia. This system will provide significantly more power to reveal and control production variations, thereby enhancing the payback on our systems and will broaden our product portfolio. We expect to place this first system into operation in the fall of 2017 and we have initiated activity with a second major player in the industry. This product, when launched later this year, is expected to provide higher value hardware and software revenue along with the opportunity to sign longer term service agreements, supporting customers to measure and control the solar cell quality in real time from the beginning to the end of the process.
About Aurora Solar Technologies
Aurora’s mission is to deliver exceptional results to the photovoltaic industry through measurement and control of critical processes during solar cell manufacturing.
We measure and map the results of critical cell fabrication processes, providing real-time visualization of material properties and true production tool performance. Our products provide process engineers and production-line operators with the means to rapidly detect and correct process excursions, material faults, limit variations, and optimize processes, thereby eliminating yield-reducing and profit-killing product variation.
We are creating the standard for quality control systems for the global photovoltaic industry.
Headquartered in North Vancouver, Canada, and founded by experienced leaders in process measurement, semiconductor manufacturing and industrial automation, the Company’s shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and trade under the symbol “ACU”. The Company was formerly “ACT Aurora Control Technologies”. For more information, Aurora’s website is located at www.aurorasolartech.com.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Some statements in this news release contain forward-looking information. These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. The Company does not assume the obligation to update any forward-looking statement.
President & Chief Executive Officer
Aurora Solar Technologies Inc.
+1 (778) 241-5000
[email protected]
Investor Relations contact:
Nina Lafleur
+1 (604) 679-9964
[email protected]
