A revolutionary breakthrough for solar panel manufacturers
The Leading Edge Difference
Efficiency Improvement
Our silicon wafers exhibit extremely low oxygen and defects, enabling superior drop-in performance.
Lower
Cost
Our one-step, kerfless process dramatically reduces the cost to produce single-crystal wafers.
Reduction in Emissions
Our low-waste and low-energy process significantly reduces the solar industry’s carbon footprint.
Ultra-low Cost Single-Crystal Silicon Wafers
Leading Edge’s Floating Silicon Method™ produces single-crystal wafers in 1-step, for 50 percent lower cost than the incumbent technology. Silicon wafers today are produced in a 7-step process that wire-saws large silicon bricks. Sawing consumes expensive diamond-coated wire, requires costly chemicals for etching damaged wafers, and results in over 40 percent of the silicon ingot being wasted as non-recyclable saw dust called “kerf.” After 70 years of refinement, there is limited opportunity to cost-out this process further.
Our unique technology removes the need for these steps, creating a dramatic reduction in cost of production.
Unlocking a Step-Change in Solar Panel Performance
Incumbent wafer manufacturing technologies inherently and unavoidably contaminate wafers with oxygen – which critically limits the final solar cell efficiency. Our patented FSM technology creates extremely low-oxygen material with uniform resistivity, something unique to our technology. Wafers created with our manufacturing equipment can “drop-in” to existing solar lines to immediately realize up to seven percent more power than traditional wafers and unlock next-generation high efficiency panel technologies.
Eliminating a Gigaton of Manufacturing Emissions Every Year
A Step-Change Above the Rest
While current cutting-edge Cz technologies require seven steps to create a single-crystal silicon wafer, FSM technology reduces the process to a single step. By drawing cooled silicon off the surface of a pool of molten liquid silicon we’re able to remove the need for sawing, polishing, and more.
