NexWafe takes the next step in photovoltaic wafer technology. Our unique process gives us an unbeatable competitive advantage over other technologies. To the benefit of our customers.

Up to now silicon wafers have made up to around 40 percent of the costs of a solar module and were therefore the most costly single components. We use Kerfless Wafer Technology, which is based on chemical vapour-phase epitaxy to achieve enormous material and energy savings during wafer manufacturing. In this way we are able to provide high quality wafers for high efficiency solar cells, at significantly lower cost than conventional silicion wafers produced by the Cz method – a significant breakthrough for the entire industry.

NexWafe is 1/40 best Euopean Hightech Startups at #HTVD17.
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NexWafe was founded in 2015, as a spinoff of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE). We are building a semi-automatic pilot production in Freiburg, Germany, and, as a next step, a production facility for mass production of EpiWafers.

NexWafe has strong corporate partners: Capable investors, experienced advisors and the worldwide best R&D and technology partners leverage our forces to the benefit and strength of the company.

NexWafe’s EpiWafer technology is a highly innovative process providing the solar industry a fast-growing multi-billion euro market with fresh impetus.

Silicon photovoltaics, after half a century of process optimization still the predominant solar technology, has managed to reduce cost of PV power dramatically. Already since a couple of years this cost reduction stagnated, significant future reduction potential is not in sight. Complex processing and high material losses are the reason for it:

Ultra-pure silicon is produced, then broken into pieces, molten in a crucible and mono-crystalline ingots are pulled from the melt. After this ingot pulling the ingots are cut into bricks and then polished and finally sawn into wafers. More than half of the valuable silicon material is lost during this process, carrying with it enormous losses of energy spent for its production.

New, innovative approaches are therefore essential for continuing cost reduction to foster further success of silicon photovoltaics.

The EpiWafer technology eliminates five of these typical process steps and at the same time it prevents the production of scrap. Highly efficient monocrystalline silicon wafers are directly produced in a reliable high quality from a gaseous source by means of only one key machine. These wafers can be seamlessly integrated into all further solar cell and module processing steps.

NexWafe leads the way back to profitability in solar cell production. By using EpiWafer Technology we make high-quality wafers affordable for high efficiency cell process.

We use chemical vapour-phase epitaxy for producing monocrystalline n-type silicon wafers for highly efficient solar cells. Direct epitaxial growth from gaseous source material eliminates five cost-intensive production steps of conventional wafer production:

• no polysilicon production
• no Cz ingot pulling
• no cropping and squaring
• no grinding
• no wire sawing

1. First a very thin release layer is produced on top of a re-usable Si seed wafer – a proprietary in-line process which is suitable for mass production.
2. Subsequently a silicon layer is epitaxially grown in a patent protected high-throughput deposition system based on atmospheric pressure CVD at T>1000°C.
3. Finally the epitaxially grown wafer is mechanically detached from the seed wafer which is then reused.

In order to realize mass production of EpiWafers we use a highly productive reactor that was developed by the founder, Stefan Reber, and his team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE). The facility and technology are aimed at consistently eliminating previous cost drivers:

• reduced investment costs
• less complex production
• very high throughput inline processing
• no material losses through mechanical finishing 
• huge reductions in energy consumption

Uncompromised reliability and quality at low cost – NexWafe’s EpiWafer technology will write the next chapter of the silicon success story.

We reduces prices of wafers by:

• saving 60 percent of silicon by our saw-free manufacturing processes*
• lowering energy consumption during manufacturing up to 80 percent*
• providing 70 percent less investment costs*
• realizing a scrap-free production

*in comparison to conventional wafer production

NexWafe guarantees premium quality:

• high quality wafer for high efficiency solar cells 
• standard wafer sizes that can be used as drop-in replacements in today’s and tomorrow’s solar cell and module production
• wafer thickness ranging from standard thickness down to 80 µm
• perfectly full-square wafers for high module packing densities
• extremely narrow resistivity distribution
• no light-induced degradation (LID)
• 100 percent “Made in Germany”
• worldwide availability

NexWafe’s high quality drop-in EpiWafer provides opportunities for significant cost reductions – without any investments on your part.

EpiWafer Technology, commercialized by NexWafe, opens the doors to an avalanche breakthrough of novel high-efficiency concepts. We enable further cost savings on module and PV system level by making higher module efficiencies cost-competitive to lower efficiency standard technology.

Kerfless Wafer Technology is the superior solution – technically as well as economically:

• drop-in replacements for Cz silicon wafers in solar production
• wafer thickness and resistivity tailored to customer requirements
• Made in Germany
• worldwide availability

We are innovation. Whether you need reliable wafers for your current production or high-end material for tomorrow’s cell concepts – we understand your needs and will use our full competence to make your ambitious goals come true.

NexWafe is home to experts with a partner-oriented approach. They pursue their goals with a great deal of passion, energy and joy: Increased competitive advantages for the solar energy sector.

Dr. Frank Siebke – Chief Financial Officer and Founder

Frank has many decades of experience in international operational and venture capital projects. As CTO and Investment Director at Good Energies, Frank invested in PV companies across Europe as well as in Israel, North America and China. Frank has held positions as a board member and board observer at several companies.

Before joining Good Energies, Frank held senior management positions in the PV industry at RWE Schott Solar, Schott Glas and Shell Solar where he successfully launched some new business areas. He worked as a researcher and development engineer at the Research Center Jülich and Sanyo Electric in Osaka.

Frank is a qualified physicist and has a Ph.D. in Science from RWTH Aachen, Germany. He also studied business administration and total quality management.

Karl Friedrich Haarburger – Chief Operating Officer

Chemical Engineer with a focus on operation and industrialization of innovative technologies. Karl Friedrich has more than 15 years of track record in highly automated PV manufacturing. As a COO at Shell Solar and as COO / VP Industrial Operations at Concentrix / Soitec Solar he built the most modern mass production facilities for silicon solar cells and for CPV modules from scratch. Realizing factories in Gelsenkirchen and Freiburg, Germany, and San Diego, USA, Karl Friedrich managed budgets of € 300 million.

Before entering into PV manufacturing business, he was an operations manager in the chemical industry, leading a production site with hundreds of tons of chemicals and related high safety and quality requirements.

Karl Friedrich received a diploma as a chemical engineer at the Technical University of Karlsruhe, Germany.

Dr. Stefan Reber – Chief Executive Officer and Founder

Physicist and specialist in solar silicon materials with nearly two decades of experience in applied research. Having started off in 1996 at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE as a PhD student, he received his doctorate in 2000 and successfully carried kerfless wafering and epitaxy technology forward from the laboratory into pilot production.

During his nearly 20 years at the Fraunhofer ISE, Stefan gained in-depth knowledge and experience of all aspects of managing a profit-oriented department, raising funds of more than € 40 million for research and development from industrial corporations and public customers. Stefan is a highly dedicated and specialized pioneer in the field of silicon materials and kerfless wafering and the co-inventor of more than 20 granted patents and patent applications.

Stefan has a physics degree from the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany and a PhD degree from the University of Mainz, Germany.

Roy Segev – Chief Commercial Officer and Founder

Physicist and serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of business experience in the global high-tech field. Roy was the founder and CEO of Zenith Solar and present from its initial beginnings right up until it was acquired by Sanan group, the largest LED manufacturer in China. He has been running the company and succeeded in raising over 20 million USD from prominent international investors. During this time he built the most efficient commercial solar system worldwide and has generated substantial business in Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East.

Previously Roy was an Executive Vice President at Magink Display Technology Inc. and prior to that a General Partner of Sadot Venture Capital where he invested in the energy and communication sectors. Roy is a co-inventor of numerous patents in the field of optics, solar and energy. Roy has a BSc. in Physics and Mathematics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a MSc. in Management from Boston University.

Dr. Kai Schillinger – VP Technology and Founder

A chemist whose passion are crystalline materials and gas-phase deposition. He started off as a student helper in Stefan Reber’s group in 2003. Having joined the Fraunhofer ISE more than a decade ago, he spent his time creatinge high quality, low-cost materials for the PV industry. He gained in-depth experience in gas-phase deposition of semiconducting materials such as silicon or silicon carbide, and is an expert in the technology of the whole EpiWafer value chain.

Kai holds a diploma and a PhD in Chemistry  from the University of Freiburg, Germany.

Teamleiter Fertigung Silizium-Wafer / Senior Operator (m/w)
Get more information and become part of the NexWafe team >

Sep 2018
Teamleiter Fertigung Silizium-Wafer / Senior Operator (m/w)
Der Teamleiter/Senior Operator betreibt mit seinem Team die Prozessanlagen und Charakterisierungsanlagen um die Qualitätsziele und die geplante Fertigungsmenge zu erreichen.
(Detailierte Stellenausschreibung | PDF | 352 KB)

Jun 2018
Chemiepark Bitterfeld-Wolfen GmbH invests in NexWafe GmbH
Second closing in NexWafe GmbH
(Download | EN | 119KB)
(Download | DE | 194KB)

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Dez 2017
NexWafe GmbH Closes EUR 8 Million Financing
New funding to commision NexWafe's 5 MW EpiWafer production
(Download | EN | 367KB)
(Download | DE | 360KB)

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Dez 7, 2016 | NexWafe wins EVC Award

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March 7, 2016 | NexWafe GmbH Completed Series A Financing with €6M Investment from Lynwood (Schweiz) AG

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Sept. 14, 2015 | 20 % Efficient Solar Cell on EpiWafer

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June 15, 2015 | NexWafe GmbH – Fraunhofer ISE Starts a New Spin-Off Company

pv magazine
NexWafe announces 250 MW “disruptive” kerfless wafer factory in Bitterfeld, Germany
The utilization rate of materials and energy in NexWafe’s kerfless wafer production processes is said to be almost 100%, at a time when price pressures on solar modules are expected to get significantly heavier in the immediate future.
pv magazine

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Mitteldeutsche Zeitung
Rückkehr der Solarindustrie?
Chemiepark beteiligt sich an NexWafe.
Seite 9 (Download | DE | 732KB)
Seite 21 (Download | DE | 120KB)

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Bild der Wissenschaft (german)
Solarzellen: Wachsen lassen statt sägen
Die Kerfless-Wafer-Technologie revolutioniert die Fertigung von Silizium-Wafern. (inkl. Video „Energie durch Sonne“)
Bild der Wissenschaft

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pv magazine
NexWafe plans 250 MWp kerfless wafer production
Fraunhofer spinoff, NexWafe GmbH plans to set up a 250 MWp production line for its kerfless wafer production. The first pilot line is expected to begin in 2017.
pv magazine

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Badische Zeitung (german)
ISE-Forscher gründen neues Unternehmen
Badische Zeitung (DE)