News: Photovoltaics
20 March 2025
Tiger and GESemi selling thin-film GaAs flexible PV production equipment
Tiger Group and GESemi are now accepting offers for equipment used to produce high-efficiency gallium arsenide (GaAs)-based thin-film photovoltaic (PV) cells. The fully decommissioned, ready-to-ship manufacturing assets from Ubiquity Solar of Endicott, NY, USA — including nearly 600 crates stored in South Central New York —features brands such as Aixtron Group, Attolight, GigaMat, SCHMID, Hercules and KLA Corp (KLA-Tencor).
In March 2021, Ubiquity Solar acquired the assets of Alta Devices, which pioneered and manufactured high-efficiency GaAs flexible thin-film solar cells used in many applications, including satellites and vehicles. The production cell efficiencies are 20% AM0 for space-based applications and 26% AM1.5 for terrestrial applications. The thin-film GaAs PV cells have one of the highest power-to-weight ratio in the industry (more than 800W/kg), notes GESemi’s chief operating officer Kevin Shows.
“The advanced production lines available in this sale can be used to manufacture products for weight-sensitive applications like drones that require high-efficiency conversion of solar energy to electricity,” he says. “In addition, this is an excellent technology for the space market.”
Some of the metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) systems are brand-new and configured for producing gallium nitride (GaN)-based devices, and have not been modified for GaAs applications.
Picture: Fully decommissioned, ready-to-ship manufacturing assets of Ubiquity Solar.
“There are countless other potential applications for thin-flexible GaAs PV cells, including satellites and electric vehicles,” says Show. “This sale represents a tremendous opportunity to advance your business by acquiring game-changing tech at liquidation values.”
Also available are nearly 200 patents and intellectual property (IP) assets related to the high-tech manufacture of GaAs wafers.
“With its PV technology products, Ubiquity Solar focused on offering more power in watts per square meter and better overall energy-production performance compared to space-grade silicon for the space market,” notes Chad Farrell, managing director, Tiger Commercial & Industrial. “The high utility of its thin, light, productive PV cell makes the machinery and equipment (M&E), patents and IP available in this sale particularly valuable to the sector,” he adds.
Categories include: PVD sputter, MOCVD, surface-preparation, ELO, plating lines, wet processing, test & measurement, inspection, analysis lab and plant support/IT. It includes all the equipment to produce about 150kWp(AM0) per year of thin-film GaAs PV cells from the Alta Devices pilot line but none of the utility support equipment, buildings, or permitting to put into operation. It also includes some of the equipment to expand to 1.5MWp(AM0) per year of production.
Sale highlights include:
- IP, rights and patents for thin, flexible GaAs solar cells;
- Aixtron R6 MOCVD systems, with two configured for GaAs and four configured for GaN applications;
- Aixtron Crius II MOCVD systems for GaAs applications;
- AVP Technologies in-line multi-chamber sputtering system;
- FHR Line 1100V7 BM in-line PVD vacuum coating system/sputtering;
- CHA Industries Mark-40 electron-beam evaporator;
- GigaMat Technologies SI wafer polishers;
- Zeta Instruments/KLA-Tencor ZS-280 optical measurement systems;
- Singulus automatic wet process stations;
- Besi/KA Industrial Engineering solar copper plating line;
- Applied Materials/Baccini semi-automatic screen printer;
- Attolight Säntis 300 full-wafer cathodoluminescence microscope;
- Hitachi S-4700 scanning electron microscope;
- Bruker Icon atomic force microscope;
- FEI Strata 235 dual-beam FIB/SEM;
- Cincinnati Sub Zero environmental test chambers;
- small module assembly pilot line currently in operation.
All equipment was running production prior to the shutdown and professionally decommissioned in 2021. Limited amounts of raw materials and finished goods also are available.
Alta Devices scaling up solar production to meet demand for low-earth orbit SmallSats
