Veeco Instruments Inc., a leader in scientific and industrialmetrology, today announced the release of its NT9100S Optical ProfilerSystem specifically designed to optimize photovoltaic (PV) cellproduction and process development.

The new NT9100S combinesthe renowned performance of Veeco’s NT Series of white light opticalprofilers with new features and options to enable rapid,three-dimensional surface measurements on six-inch crystalline siliconPV cells.

“Veeco has a very strong presence in the solarmarket,” said Mark R. Munch, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, VeecoMetrology. “Now, with our customized NT9100S, we can offerunprecedented capability to monitor and control surface texture and,more importantly, to match specific surface measurements to solar cellefficiency early in the manufacturing process.”

Andrew Masters,Veeco’s Vice President of Segment Marketing and Business Development,added, “The NT9100S brings the power and flexibility of the NT SeriesOptical Profilers, along with a PV-specific stage and chuck, to solarcell production monitoring. We are excited to deliver an affordable,feature-rich metrology platform that can enable such a wide scope ofefficiency-enhancing applications in solar cell research andproduction.”

The NT9100S is based upon the workhorse NT Seriesproduct line, and adds a custom 156-millimeter programmable stage foredge-to-edge measurements on a 6-inch PV cell. Other standard featuresinclude a porous vacuum chuck that securely and safely affixes astandard PV cell, automation software, field stitching software, andpatent-pending, ultra-uniform dual-LED illumination.

Runningon the industry-leading Vision software platform, the NT9100S providesaccess to over 200 distinct analyses, and over 1,000 criticalparameters for process control and monitoring.