Title :
The road to commercialization in the PV industry: a case study of EFG technology
Author :
Henderson, E.J. ; Kalejs, J.P.
Author_Institution :
ASE Americas Inc., Billerica, MA, USA
Abstract :
The successful commercialization of the PV industry will be a direct function of the effective management of the total cost of its delivered products. A central indicator of this success is a firm´s capability to attain and preserve a productivity advantage over its competitors in the market of choice. The interdependency of technical know-how and success in the business climate is measurable along multiple dimensions. Arguably among these indicators are issues related to technical intensity, the willingness and ability to deploy significant technological changes, and certainly sustainable market participation. Several dozen new silicon wafer production technologies have been introduced and taken to various levels of maturity over the past two decades. Here, the authors trace the development of edge-defined film-fed growth (EFG) technology from a fledgling R&D phase to commercialization in this paper within the context of a conventional experience curve for EFG technology
Keywords :
crystal growth from melt; economics; photovoltaic power systems; research and development management; semiconductor device manufacture; semiconductor growth; solar cell arrays; solar cells; PV industry; R&D efforts; business; commercialization; edge-defined film-fed growth technology; experience curve; market participation; productivity; silicon wafer production; technical intensity; technical maturity; technological change; Business; Commercialization; Computer aided software engineering; Costs; Crystallization; Manufacturing industries; Production; Research and development; Silicon; Technological innovation;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1996., Conference Record of the Twenty Fifth IEEE
Conference_Location :
Washington, DC
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-3166-4
DOI :
10.1109/PVSC.1996.564344
