Worldwide partnership between Air Liquide and Sixtron for crystalline-Si solar cells

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Air Liquide and Sixtron Advanced Materials announced an exclusive partnership to promote and distribute advanced coating materials to crystalline silicon (“c-Si”) solar cell manufacturers worldwide. This innovative Silexium™ technology will enable crystalline solar panel producers - which today represent around 70% of all photovoltaic manufacturers - to improve the performance of their solar cells efficiency and reduce costs/Wp without significant up-front capital investment.

This exclusive agreement will allow Air Liquide to complement its existing ALOHA™ range of advanced precursor materials and propose a new value-adding gas solution to its c-Si photovoltaic customers worldwide.

Sixtron is a Canadian company whose focus is developing scalable and cost-effective industrial coating systems that improve the performance of solar cells.

The Silexium™ process solution combines proprietary precursor molecules with the SunBox™ gas generation system to deposit new solar cell films.

The agreement will leverage Air Liquide’s leading position in the photovoltaic industry supply chain. Manufacturers of c-Si solar cells in more than 20 countries do already benefit from Air Liquide materials management and on-site services infrastructure, enabling them to now rapidly deploy the Silexium™ technology to mass production.

Francisco Martins, Vice-President World Business Line Electronics of the Air Liquide Group, declared: “This global partnership with Sixtron demonstrates Air Liquide strategic interest to provide its photovoltaic customers with the safest, most advanced and lowest cost-of-ownership Gases & Precursors solutions in the market. The photovoltaic market is at the crossroads of Energy and the Environment, two growth drivers of the Air Liquide group.”

Peter Tyszewicz, President and CEO of Sixtron, said: “Air Liquide’s number one market position will allow Sixtron to support the crystalline-Silicon solar industry as it improves cell efficiency and reduces costs.”