In July 2003 the SolarCentre Erfurt was founded as business unit of the CiS1 Institute for MicrosensorsErfurt, Germany. The CiS Institute for Microsensors gGmbH is a non-profit research-establishment in the Free Stateof Thuringia with close ties to the local industry. The Centre is located in the direct neighbourhood of the silicon wafer company PV Silicon AG and the solar cell company ErSol Solar Energy AG. The aim of the SolarCentre includesthe development of industrially feasible process technologies for silicon solar cells and of in-line measurementequipment. First projects have two main objectives i) the development of thin, large area multicrystalline wafers anda suitable solar cell process, ii) the development of solar cell concepts to achieve high efficiencies on monocrystalline wafers. In this paper we present, after a short overview of the measurement and process equipment, first resultsand future work of the before mentioned projects.
