31 March 2021

The start-up NexWafe has developed a novel method to produce silicon wafers. This has earned the company the Fraunhofer Founder Award 2020.

NexWafe is a spin-off of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. The start-up aims to produce silicon wafers for photovoltaic systems as resource-efficiently and inexpensively as possible. To this end, the company has developed the so-called EpiWafer method. In contrast to conventional methods of manufacturing silicon wafers, this can reduce both production costs and CO2 emissions. NexWafe operates a pilot production line in Freiburg to manufacture the high-quality monocrystalline wafers.

Producing monocrystalline silicon wafers in a climate-friendly and cost-effective way

In the method developed by NexWafe, a silicon compound is first evaporated and then deposited as a crystalline silicon layer directly onto a seed wafer. A release layer then makes it possible to detach the new wafer that is formed in this way. This novel technology allows wafers to be produced in any desired thickness. At the same time, energy and material consumption are significantly reduced. Compared to conventional methods, the new process can halve the manufacturing costs for photovoltaic wafers. In addition, the resulting CO2 emissions are reduced by 70 per cent.

Despite the new technology, the silicon wafers produced by NexWafe are fully compatible with the industry standards of conventional solar cell and module production. NexWafe's ability to produce thin wafers will enable the solar industry to achieve world-record efficiencies in the mass production of solar cells. This also opens up new future prospects for Germany as an industrial location for solar cell production.

Founder Award as incentive and distinction

The Fraunhofer Founder Award was created as part of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft's spin-off strategy. It honours spin-offs from the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft for excellent start-up projects. Such projects are characterised by successful start-ups that are active on the market and demonstrate a direct benefit for society through their products or services. The Fraunhofer Founder Award was awarded for the first time in 2016. It is endowed with 5,000 euros.

Among other things, EnArgus, the central information system for energy research funding, contains a database of all energy research projects - including this project.
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