GT Solar International, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOLR), a global provider of polysilicon production technology, and sapphire and silicon crystalline growth systems and materials for the solar, LED and other specialty markets, today announced that it has received an order valued at over $41 million dollars for its advanced sapphire crystallization furnaces. This is GT Solar’s fourth order for its sapphire crystallization furnaces in recent months.

“We continue to see interest in our advanced sapphire furnace from new market entrants who are interested in producing sapphire material for high brightness (HB) LED applications”

“We continue to see interest in our advanced sapphire furnace from new market entrants who are interested in producing sapphire material for high brightness (HB) LED applications,” said Tom Gutierrez, GT Solar’s president and CEO. “Our sapphire crystallization furnace provides a scalable and reliable architecture allowing companies to quickly ramp to volume production to produce low-cost, large area sapphire substrates.”

GT Solar’s crystallization process technology and global support resources provide a path to productive and profitable sapphire manufacturing operations. The furnaces ordered by the new manufacturer will initially produce 85 kilogram boules. During its recent Q3 FY11 quarterly earnings call, GT Solar announced an enhancement to the advanced sapphire furnace that will increase the output capacity to 100 kilograms per cycle. This scalability gives customers an upgrade path to higher levels of throughput and productivity and provides a higher return on their investment.