LAPLACE, a well-established supplier of thermal processing equipment for the PV industry, offers its LPCVD platform for high-efficiency TOPCon solar cell manufacturing. LLP480/6 is an LPCVD system designed for tunnel oxide and in-situ doped polysilicon deposition in TOPCon solar cell production. Available since 2022, the tool supports wafer sizes from 182 mm to 210 mm and thicknesses above 120 μm. It features a 6-chamber batch configuration with automatic carrier-based wafer handling, supporting both horizontal and vertical wafer orientations.

The system operates at process temperatures between 580°C and 620°C and a pressure of 220 mTorr. It thermally grows the tunneling silicon oxide, silane and oxygen as the precursors for the deposition of polysilicon. Deposition rates for polysilicon range from 0.08 to 0.13 nm/s. The system has a throughput of up to 8,600 wafers/hour for M10 and 6,300 wafers/hour for G12, with oxide and poly thicknesses typically in the 1.6 to 2 nm and 110 to 150 nm range, respectively.

Maintenance involves an 8-hour cleaning cycle after 90 boat runs, using NaOH, HF, HCl, and DI water. Power consumption is rated at 108 kWh/h. The system has a rated availability of over 95% and mechanical yields over 99.9%.