Applied Materials said Wednesday it stopped selling its troubled SunFab line of manufacturing equipment for thin-film solar cells.
The company said tumbling sales for the product line were the result of falling crystalline silicon panel prices and a weak market for utility-scale solar plants due to the recent recession.
Applied Materials said it expects customers eventually will show renewed interest in thin film manufacturing equipment, like SunFab.
However the Silicon Valley semiconductor equipment maker vowed to stay in the thin-film business, not only selling individual tools to customers but continuing research and development on advanced chemical vapor deposition machinery targeting tandem and triple junction cells.
“We still believe in the technology,” said Mark Pinto, an executive vice president in the company’s energy division. “We are still going to invest in the technology.
As recently as two months ago, Applied Materials held out hope of attracting new SunFab business from large utilities in India and China. At the time, sales in its energy and environmental division were down 54 percent and SunFab orders were about two-thirds of what they were several quarters earlier.
Chief Executive Mike Splinter said Wednesday he could no longer continue down the path of poor performance. “This decision is about the market” and the shortfall in demand for SunFab, he said.
And yet, Applied Materials claimed solar manufacturers were likely to show renewed interest in thin-film cells in the future – amorphous silicon, like SunFab’s, and others.
The decision to exit the SunFab business creates uncertainty for Applied Materials’ more than a dozen customers. The company said it would support its users, but many are early in the technology and producing single junction cells.
Applied’s decision to pull the plug on SunFab will put as many as 500 employees out of work and result in a charge of as much as $425 million.
[...] Path Seen For Amorphous Thin Film Applied Materials pulled the plug this week on its turnkey SunFab line of manufacturing equipment for amorphous thin-film solar [...]
[...] in July killed its SunFab line of amorphous thin-film solar gear citing falling sales and mounting losses. Competitive [...]