Press Release

Cooperation agreement for the development of a fully-automated coating machine signed

Kahl am Main, March 19, 2008 - SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES (SINGULUS), Kahl/Main, and Q-Cells AG, Bitterfeld-Wolfen, intend to jointly optimize the production of crystalline solar cells. The goal is to improve productivity and therefore to reduce production costs and on the other hand to increase the energy efficiency of mono- and poly-crystalline silicon cells.

Stefan A. Baustert, Chief Executive Officer of the SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES AG, comments: “With the continuing increase of the output and the yield, SINGULUS’ machines have enabled a cost-efficient mass production of CDs and DVDs. Now we intend to apply our automation and coating know-how to the production of solar cells."

“This project is an important milestone in our close cooperation with plant engineering companies�, adds Dr. Florian Holzapfel, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the Q-Cells AG. “In order to come closer to the PV-industry’s target to make solar power compatible, the significant reduction of production costs is essential. This will only be possible, if the cell developers with their process know-how work closely together with equipment producers to transfer further advanced production processes from research and development into the production steps."

The first stage of the cooperation agreement with Q-Cells is the development of a new, fully into the cell production integrated coating station. With the vacuum coating process applied in the DVD production, the manufacture of anti-reflective layers on solar wafers will be fully automated in the future. With the extremely high quality of the anti-reflective layers in the nanometer area the light transmission and the passivation characteristics will be improved and therefore the energy efficiency of the finished cells improved. The first coating machine from SINGULUS will already be tested in Q-Cells’ production in the current year.

Stefan A. Baustert notes: “We are very pleased that we were able to get Q-Cells, the No. 1 in the production of solar cells, on board for cooperation.� Combined with the equipment from STANGL the SINGULUS Group will then be able to offer two important machine groups with wet-chemical and vacuum coating processes for the production of crystalline silicon solar cells.

Short profile SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES
SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES is market leader for optical disc production lines and is the only supplier worldwide to cover the entire product range: mastering, molding and replication lines.

In addition to the further development of the core activities of Optical Disc, the diversification into new work areas is the most important challenge.

With the acquisition of the STANGL Semiconductor Equipment AG SINGULUS successfully entered the solar equipment market. The new business area Solar will be strongly expanded in the next couple of years.