Applied ATON PVD

The Applied ATON is an innovative PVD system that deposits silane-free silicon nitride anti-reflective/passivation layers on silicon wafer substrates. With superior film uniformity and high throughput, the ATON provides high performance with a low cost of ownership. Its modular design and ability to accommodate various substrate sizes offer exceptional production flexibility.

A new rotatable target design extends the target change and cleaning interval from 10 days to 20 days or more, increasing system uptime to over 93%. This new design more than triples target utilization to over 75%, improving lifetime and reducing overall operating cost over planar target technology.

Each ATON system can provide over 100 MW output, with world class film uniformity (+/- 2.5%) maintained throughout target lifetime. Refractive Index (RI) and hydrogen content are controlled independently, enabling cell efficiency to be easily managed in day-to-day production. Overall, the ATON technology provides c-Si manufacturers with equivalent cell efficiency compared to CVD, yet with 40% lower COO.