Aurora Solar Technologies introduces Veritas™ Insight to maximize yield and performance in high-efficiency solar cell manufacturing


NORTH VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aurora Solar Technologies Inc. (“Aurora”) (“Company”) (TSX.V:ACU) (OTCBB:AACTF) (FSE:A82) is pleased to announce the introduction of VeritasTM Insight, a new product in the Company’s mission of creating a fully integrated quality control system for the solar cell manufacturing industry.

Designed for use in PERC and other high-efficiency cell production lines, VeritasTM Insight directly addresses the growing challenges facing cell manufacturers in characterizing and controlling production variation. These variations cause yield limitations and profit loss, and can introduce excess warranty liabilities, due to poor electrical performance and other variances in finished cells. The effects can also be seen in the often-lengthy time it takes to bring new high-efficiency production lines up to speed, resulting in many weeks of sub-optimal performance.

Leveraging extensive research and experience with actual solar cell production line variance and their root causes, VeritasTM Insight directly addresses these problems. Surpassing traditional Statistical Process Control methods, it detects and interprets complex process deviations or faults that cannot be directly discerned, but cause protracted declines in average efficiency or costly quality issues in the field. It reveals causal relationships between finished cell electrical variations and controllable upstream fabrication process variations in real-time. This allows production personnel to see, understand and manage tradeoffs and fluctuations as these occur in production.  VeritasTM Insight provides these benefits with end-of-line cell performance alone or in combination with other production line measurements.

“Manufacturers urgently need to make use of the powerful information embedded within the enormous quantity of production data being generated as the industry scales to hundreds of gigawatts of annual production,” stated Gordon Deans, Aurora’s Chief Operating Officer. “This is especially vital for high-efficiency cell designs such as PERC, bifacial, heterojunction and other technologies. VeritasTM Insight now serves this need by transforming this valuable stream of data into actionable information to boost manufacturing yield and detect hidden process behaviour that affects product quality.”

Numerous high-efficiency solar cell manufacturers have already expressed a strong interest in the use of this novel tool to accelerate their manufacturing competitiveness and reduce costs in ramp-up and regular operations. VeritasTM Insight continues Aurora’s mission to provide robust, intuitive and powerful process measurement, visualization and control products, and will be available starting in April 2018.

About Aurora Solar Technologies:

Aurora’s mission is to deliver exceptional results to the photovoltaic industry through measurement, visualization and control of critical processes during solar cell manufacturing. We measure and map the results of critical cell fabrication processes, providing real-time visualization of material properties, cell parameters and production tool performance. Our products provide process engineers and production-line operators with the means to rapidly detect, analyze and correct process excursions, limit variations, and optimize processes, thereby increasing yield and profits. We are creating the quality control standard for the global photovoltaic manufacturing industry.  For more information, Aurora’s website is located at www.aurorasolartech.com.

For further information contact:

Michael Heaven, P.Eng., MBA
President & Chief Executive Officer
Aurora Solar Technologies Inc.
Phone: +1 (778) 241-5000
info@aurorasolartech.com

Investor Relations contact:
Nina Lafleur
Phone: +1 (604) 679-9964
info@aurorasolartech.com

Paradox Public Relations
Phone: +1 (514) 341-0408
info@paradox-pr.ca

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Some statements in this news release contain forward­ looking information. These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. The Company does not assume the obligation to update any forward­ looking statement.