Canada’s Aurora Solar Acquires Australia’s BT Imaging

• Aurora Solar has completed the acquisition of BT Imaging as part of its growth and market development strategy
• It enables the Canadian company to expand its portfolio from PV cell manufacturing alone to include R&D and quality control market segments
• Aurora will be able to address PV silicon raw material quality control with an established product line

Solar cell technology company from Vancouver, Canada Aurora Solar Technologies has acquired Australia's PV quality test equipment supplier BT Imaging (BTi), which offers photoluminescence (PL) imaging tools for PV material inspection and quality control. Aurora Solar wants to accelerate growth of the PL business by combining it with its Insight data science platform.

"This business combination is expected to accelerate Aurora's growth by combining BTi's quality control tools with Aurora's InsightTM data science platform. This acquisition broadens the combined business by product and its process control systems capability along with diversifying sales by customer, product and geographic region," explained Aurora.

Aurora further believes this acquisition will enable it to address PV silicon raw material quality control with an established product line, and extend its market from PV cell manufacturing to also include R&D and quality control market segments.

Geographical diversification is another benefit Aurora sees from this move. "Equally important it will allow for new features that increase Insight's value and extend its importance as the core operational tool for production process optimization and control," it added.

BTi's products are used in multiple parts of the PV supply chain, right from silicon ingots and wafers, through to finished cells and also used for industrial facilities and major research institutes across Asia, Europe and North America.

BTi Co-Founder Thorsten Trupke is credited with having invented PL imaging to help identify hidden faults and defects affecting solar cells and silicon wafer performance in a second or less time. He was announced the winner of 2021 IEEE William Cherry Award in June 2021 (see IEEE William Cherry Award for UNSW Professor).

"We are delighted to have completed this important acquisition, as a key element of our growth and market development strategy in process control and yield management solutions for the PV industry," said Aurora's President and CEO Gordon Deans. "BTi brings a powerful brand, a world-class complementary product line and delivery team, and deep industry knowledge and strategic relationships such as with the University of New South Wales."

A year back in August 2021, Aurora acquired software solutions provider Folsom Labs that has created design software HelioScope (see North America PV Snippets: Buckeye, Aurora Solar, SEIA).