AIXTRON SE today announced a new order for a MOCVD reactor from Russian company Saturn Joint Stock Company (Saturn JSC). The order comprises one AIX 2800 G4-R 15x4-inch configuration deposition system including an automated wafer transfer system.

The Krasnodar based company placed the order during the fourth quarter of 2010 and following delivery in the second quarter of 2011, the system will be used to produce Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) solar cell epitaxial materials for the Russian space market. The new reactor will be commissioned by the AIXTRON Europe support team in a dedicated facility alongside the existing AIXTRON reactor at the Saturn JSC production plant in Krasnodar.

Mr. Anatoly Skursky, Director General of Saturn JSC, comments, "Our company has been very satisfied with the excellent performance and ease of use we have enjoyed with our existing AIXTRON system. The service support we have received from the AIXTRON Europe Process Team was of a very high standard, too. As promised, they enabled us to reach full production status in a very short time. Moving up to the 15x4-inch configuration system will give us even better productivity as well as the uniformity, performance and reliability we have come to expect from AIXTRON equipment. We estimate the G4 to be the most suitable state-of-the-art system for the production of solar cells."

Saturn JSC ordered its first AIXTRON MOCVD GaAs system, an AIX 2600G3, 8x4-inch, for the production of solar cells in April 2006. This was the first solar cell production MOCVD system in Russia.

Saturn JSC has been developing and producing solar cells and solar arrays for space applications since 1971. In this period, more than 1,200 spacecrafts were provided with solar arrays. Not only most Russian spacecrafts but also many foreign ones are equipped with solar arrays and storage batteries produced by Saturn JSC.