While the Government of India has provided substantial funds for research in Nano sciences and Solar Photovoltaics through the Nano Mission, Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission and other programmes, often our universities and research institutions have to look overseas for high quality R&D equipment in this field.

This gap is now going to be filled by the Bangalore-based Hind High Vacuum Co. Pvt. Ltd. (HHV), which has a 3-decade long history of building tools for research and development and is equipped with a state-of-the-art R&D centre for process development.

HHV is the flagship company of the HHV Group, a multi-technology group of companies involved in the design, development and manufacture of equipment and products in the field of Vacuum Technology, Solar Photovoltaic Energy and Thin Films.

The company has recently developed, for the first time in the country, a cluster-type, multi-chamber Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition (PECVD) system which can be used to coat different types of thin films on substrates.

R. Giridhara Gopalan, Vice President of HHV says "This tool is highly versatile and provides maximum flexibility to the user by combining multiple processes without having the need to break the vacuum. Each chamber can be configured for a particular process like, PECVD, PVD, etching, etc., thereby enabling researchers to carry out multiple experiments simultaneously. This equipment can be used for R&D in MEMS/NEMS, Solid State Lighting, Renewable Energy, Nano Electronics, and Photonics. It can also be integrated to a glove box unit for OLED applications. In addition HHV also offers certain standard process recipes along with the equipment."

Said Prasanth Sakhamuri, Managing Director of HHV, "We have already supplied 3 such systems to leading R&D institutions in India. The demand in the country could rise significantly for these systems in the coming years. HHV would also be looking at export of these tools to international R&D Labs."

The Cluster PECVD has all the necessary attributes needed for a world class research tool. It is a table-top system, compact in size (occupies an area of just 3 metres by 3 metres), simple to operate, easy to maintain, reliable in performance, with precise control of parameters, fully programmable with all safety features incorporated in the same. It can handle substrates of various sizes starting from 100 mm.

Established in 1965 at Bangalore as a specialized enterprise to develop Indian self-reliance in high vacuum technology, HHV has now grown into a multi-location, multi-product group of companies involved in the design, development and manufacture of off-the-shelf and customized equipment and products in the fields of Vacuum Technology, Solar Photovoltaic Energy and Thin Films.