Dutch spatial ALD companies keep getting in each other’s way

A little over a decade ago, two promising Dutch startups started taking aim at exactly the same target. Both armed with a continuous atmospheric version of the atomic layer deposition (ALD) process, called spatial ALD, they offered silicon solar cell manufacturers a way to deposit a so-called passivation layer of superior quality. This translated into a nice additional efficiency gain compared to depositing the same layer with another technique.

Contender number one, Levitech, was spun out of ASMI, which at the time already had an ALD track record in the semiconductor industry (this business has exploded over the past few years). Originally, the startup was to continue ASMI’s Levitor business for rapid thermal processing, but parent company and management saw an opportunity to extend the Levitor’s unique wafer transport system to the PV market. The newly developed Levitrack leads solar wafers, floating on ‘pillows of gas,’ past alternating gas zones, thus enabling the ALD process to proceed.