Ferro Corporation (NYSE: FOE) announced today the opening of a photovoltaic research and development laboratory in Neihu Technology Park, Taipei City, Taiwan.
This expansion enables Ferro to provide timely technical support for customers in Taiwan and to deliver innovative solutions for improving the efficiency of solar cells and lowering the cost of solar cell production. The laboratory will provide testing and customer technical assistance to support rapid product development and resolution of technical issues.
The Ferro Taiwan Technology Center will perform tests related to the deposition of metallization pastes on solar cells. Services will include solar cell printing and firing, printing quality analysis, electrical performance measurement, wafer property analysis, and solderability and adhesion testing. These tests help demonstrate how to apply Ferro solar pastes and provide guidance on how to optimize process conditions in a customer's production line. Ferro customers also will be able to supply wafers to evaluate conductive pastes when their test facilities are busy, thus speeding up the paste qualification process.
"This development laboratory greatly improves Ferro's ability to smoothly, rapidly and sustainably introduce innovative metallization pastes into the continually advancing solar cell market in Taiwan," notes Dr. Steven Florio, Chief Technology Officer for Ferro's Electronic, Color and Glass Materials Group. "The addition of this laboratory and expansion of the staff in Taiwan will improve both the quality and timeliness of our local support by providing facilities for the optimization of all key process conditions to meet specific customer requirements."