New growth market

We want to start a discussion on the solar manufacturing market in response to a conversation with Anita Brown of Indium at the recent Productronica show in Germany. Since we referred to it in our show report newsletter we decided to start a thread and see if anyone has interest in discussing this new market. As we reported, the lowest growth rate we heard for solar manufacturing was 20% and ranged as high as 50% annually. A recent CleanRooms issue referred to wafer manufacturing considerations in the solar industry as well as materials considerations by quoting Robert Gattereder, managing director at M+W Zander FE , St�ttgart, Germany... "� even as we move to a tenfold increase in production in the solar industry, which will, of course, lead to new dimensions in managing chemical and metallic materials, we are in discussions with manufacturers and equipment suppliers on these issues �.� (CleanRooms May, 2007Author: Sarah Fister Gale) Link to article: http://cr.pennnet.com/articles/article_display.cfm?Section=ARCHI&C=Feat&ARTICLE_ID=293102&KEYWORDS=kees%2Djan%20leliveld&p=15

So please contribute your questions and opinions on solar as well as production issues that may affect this market. In addition, if this subject is not of sufficient interest, please suggest or start new topics. We would like SMTnet to begin bringing you new information you will need to meet tomorrows production requirements with content ranging from new products and services to the production issues they pose. We would also invite companies to use this section of the Forum to make the SMTnet community aware of your latest new product developments. Please let us know if you have any areas of interest we could explore. Thanks�

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