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, announced a productivity improvement to its latest generation multicrystalline ingot growth system, the DSS™650, which was first announced in January. The DSS650 produces ingots greater than 625 kilograms. The enhanced process improves productivity by 44 percent over the DSS450 as a result of reduced cycle time, while maintaining high crystal quality and mass ingot yield.

“The enhanced productivity of our DSS650 is a result of our ongoing continuous improvement program”

“The enhanced productivity of our DSS650 is a result of our ongoing continuous improvement program,” said Vikram Singh, vice president and general manager of GT Solar’s photovoltaic systems group. “After we release a product we continue to look for additional ways to improve the performance of our systems. The productivity improvement we are announcing today is an example of how GT continues to deliver value to our customers to lower their cost of manufacturing and improve their return in investment.”

The DSS650 continues GT’s proven track record of helping its large installed base of customers achieve greater value from their equipment. With over 2,900 systems in the field, customers can upgrade previous generation DSS furnaces to take advantage of the higher throughput and performance of the new DSS650. In addition to lowering ingot production costs, the DSS650 helps manufacturers reduce the cost of their wafer operations because the taller form factor of the bricks optimizes and improves the utilization of the wafer saw beam. This, in turn, improves yield by increasing the amount of good wafers produced.