Tiger Group and GESemi offer production lines for semiconductors, thin-film GaAs, flexible PV

Tiger Group and GESemi are now accepting offers for advanced equipment used to produce high-efficiency, gallium arsenide (GaAs) based thin-film photovoltaic (PV) cells.

The massive offering of fully decommissioned, ready-to-ship manufacturing assets from Endicott-based Ubiquity Solar—with 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. These thin-film GaAs PV cells, have one of the highest power-to-weight ratio in the industry at more than 800 watts per kilogram, noted GESemi 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 said. "In addition, this is an excellent technology for the space market."

Some of the MOCVDs are brand-new and configured for producing Gallium Nitride (GaN) based semiconductor devices and have not been modified for GaAs applications.

"There are countless other potential applications for thin-flexible GaAs PV cells, including satellites and electric vehicles," Show said. "This sale represents a tremendous opportunity to advance your business by acquiring game-changing tech at liquidation values."

Also available are patents (nearly 200 in all) and intellectual property (IP) assets related to the high-tech manufacture of gallium arsenide 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," noted Chad Farrell, MD, 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.

Categories include: PVD sputter, MOCVD, surface-preparation, ELO, plating lines, wet processing, test and measurement, inspection, analysis lab and plant support/IT. It includes all the equipment to produce about 150kWp(AM0) 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.