The analyst thinks over-supply will pressure prices of both silicon wafers and solar modules.
FORBES: Overheated? Solar Sector Revenue Could Shrink In 2011
Chinese makers of the silicon wafers that conduct electricity directly from sunlight proliferated and prospered.
But the factory will be able to make wafers using a superior 28nm process.
The wafers use an insulation layer that acts as a radiator under the circuits.
We devised a breakthrough a few years ago that allows us to grow GaN-on-Silicon wafers.
FORBES: How Silicon Will Spur A Boom In Solid-State Lighting
Bigger wafers, therefore, let you expand production in the same facility by nearly 36x.
FORBES: How Silicon Will Spur A Boom In Solid-State Lighting
It makes silicon solar wafers and photovoltaic cells and builds and runs solar power stations.
Silicon wafers, used to manufacture solar devices, is also a main component in the semiconductor industry.
FORBES: Solar Industry Rising: Can Energy's Fastest-Growing Sector Keep It Going?
Advanced Micro Devices uses Soitec wafers for its Opteron computer server chips and Athlon 64 PCchips.
One of the major transitions is going to be the move to 450mm wafers.
Shipments for the quarter included 292.5 MW of wafers and 192.1 MW of modules.
The specific technology areas that Intel is investing in are 450mm wafers and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography.
FORBES: Three Investments That Will Change The Technology Game
Soitec churns out 800, 000 wafers a year at two factories in France, using its elegant sandwichmaking technique.
"We'd like to move one ton of silicon wafers through a line in an hour, " Gay says.
Meanwhile, DigiTimes in a separate story reports that the quake could disrupt suppliers of silicon wafers.
FORBES: Memory Chip Prices Spike After Quake On Tighter Supplies
Inspectors with mirrors and flashlights were thrilled to find some of the hexagonal-wafers and gold foil intact.
Prices of polysilicon wafers used to make solar cells plunged by 73 percent from 2010 to last year.
Silicon ingot, from which you can slice off the wafers to make solar cells, has become much cheaper.
Only 3% of wafers are currently SOI, and the world's biggest chipmaker, Intel, is cool on this cooling technique.
By switching from sapphire to silicon wafers, the wafer size jumps from two or four inches to eight inches.
FORBES: How Silicon Will Spur A Boom In Solid-State Lighting
The company already has lined up customers who are trying out its wafers.
One of these involves shooting oxygen ions (electrically charged atoms) into the silicon wafers from which chips are subsequently cut.
IBM's design involved feeding small plastic wafers into a heated pump that melted them and pushed the goo through an extruder.
But Rubicon said that due to low pricing for two-inch and four-inch wafers, the company sold them only in limited amounts.
FORBES: Rubicon Technology Tumbles On Soft Q4, Weak Q1 Outlook
Bosch said it would unwind the solar power venture and shut down manufacturing ingots, wafers, cells and modules in early 2014.
FORBES: Bosch Shuts Down Solar Business, Suffers Steep Losses
Globalfoundries expects to be turning out state-of-the art semiconductor wafers in 2012.
FORBES: Intel And Globalfoundries To Create 2,400 Tech Jobs In U.S.
Demand for semiconductor wafers, a proxy for high-tech appetite for silver, is expected to rise 6%, according to SEMI, a trade group.
You have to remember that wafers today are 300 millimeters in size.
FORBES: Small-Cap Concerns Are Premature, Here Are Two You Should Consider
In fact, some of the wafers become worth over a million dollars.
FORBES: Small-Cap Concerns Are Premature, Here Are Two You Should Consider
The company makes solar cells and silicon wafers used in solar panels.
FORBES: Netflix And Baidu Maintain Momentum, Chinese Solar Stocks Sizzle
应用推荐