General Plasma Strengthens its Advanced Sources Division With Acquisition Of The Ion Source Product Line From Advanced Energy Industries; General Plasma Is Now the World Leader In Anode Layer Ion Sources and Technology.

Tucson, Arizona, June 13, 2008 - General Plasma Inc. (GPI) today announced the completion of its acquisition of the Ion Source product line from Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. (Nasdaq: AEIS), based in Fort Collins, Colorado.

“The integration of Advanced Energy’s linear ion sources product line into GPI’s Advanced Sources division secures GPI’s position as the world leader in anode layer ion source technology,” said John Madocks, President and Founder of General Plasma.

“This new product line will allow GPI’s Advanced Sources division to meet a wider set of customer needs and presents significant opportunities for growth into new markets, particularly in the rapidly growing solar energy segment.”

“General Plasma extends its hallmark customer support to Advanced Energy’s ion source customers, offering application support and process development services. GPI’s experience applying our patented ion sources to substrate etching, cleaning, treatment and deposition processes will assist the ion source customer base,” Madocks said.

For additional information on this new product line, click here.

For a copy of the full press release, click here.

General Plasma, Inc. is proud to announce the launch of its newly redesigned website, dedicated to provide information about General Plasma’s expanding list of vacuum thin film deposition products and systems, including: ion sources for etching and cleaning, magnetrons for sputtering, custom systems or complete turnkey large area PECVD solutions.

The site will be continually updated with new products, technological breakthroughs and industry events. General Plasma is committed to providing cutting edge technology, educating customers and delivering solutions for their thin film coating needs. If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact us via the contact form.

Dr. Mark George, General Plasma’s Director of Technology has been selected to give a poster presentation at the 33rd IEEE Photovoltaics Specialists Conference in San Diego. The presentation, titled “Silicon Nitride ARC Thin Films, by New Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition Source Technology”, will be displayed in the Randall Ballroom in the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel in San Diego.

For more information about the conference, please click here.

General Plasma’s new thin film development laboratory has been completed! New development capabilities include, three development thin film process tools, two class 100 clean rooms, continuous alarm monitoring gas bunkers, gas scrubber. Thin film characterization equipment has also been upgraded to include a phase shift microscope, Hall mobility analyzer, four point probe, UV-VIS-IS spectrometer, taber abrader and optical microscope. For more information, please click here.

John Madocks, CEO and Dr. Mark George, Director of Technology, will present an important paper on silicon nitride deposition for solar cells at the SVC Techcon in Chicago. Their talk, “Hydrogenated SiN for Anti-Reflection and Passivation of Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells by New PECVD Source” is scheduled for Wednesday morning at 11:30 am in room CT-7. This new process, developed by GPI, is far more efficient than conventional processes and sets a new standard for efficiency and mean time between maintenance.

The Arizona Research Institute for Solar Energy (AZRISE) has invited John Madocks, CEO of GPI, to talk about the role of vacuum coating technology in solar energy. In his talk, scheduled for April 19th in Tucson, Madocks will explain how vacuum coating technology enables the fabrication of crystalline silicon and thin-film solar cells. AZRISE is affiliated with the University of Arizona and is dedicated to promoting solar energy in Arizona.

In September, General Plasma will introduce a new process for SiNx anti-reflection coating at the European PV Solar Energy Conference in Valencia, Spain. Based on General Plasma’s patented technology, this new disruptive process delivers order-of-magnitude improvements in deposition rate, electricity consumption, cost effectiveness and MTBM cycles.

General Plasma makes the cover of the Arizona Daily Star business section! http://www.azstarnet.com/business/206684.php