From research to mass production

摘要

The three founders of Roth & Rau AG from Hohenstein-Ernstthal in Saxony, Germany, were recently named "Entrepreneurs of the Year" - and not without reason. Roth & Rau is one of the world's leading providers of production equipment and manufacturing technologies for the PV industry. S&WE paid the company a visit.rnSilvia Roth, Dietmar Roth and Bernd Rau have known each other for decades. "Actually, we had planned a university career," says Silvia Roth. "All three of us were working as physicists in the same department at what is now the Chemnitz University of Technology. I was more involved with device development, my two colleagues in process development." Already before the German reunification, the scientists assessed risks and opportunities, then founded their company on 22 June 1990 with 20,000 East German marks - "That was all the money we had," laughs Roth. "We were able to take our patents with us. The university could not afford to have them extended. Our first product was based on them. The work on the plasma sources was effectively the continuation of our work at the university," explains the physicist, who today, as Vice President, is responsible for Marketing & Investor Relations at Roth & Rau.