Swiss precision,
since 1978.
Pasan has built the instruments that decide what a solar device is worth since the earliest days of the industry.
Make solar measurement something you can trust.
Pasan builds the xenon solar simulators that decide what a solar device is worth. A module's power rating is a contract; a calibration is a chain of trust. Our job is to make that number right, repeatably, traceably, anywhere in the world.
We have done it from Neuchâtel since 1978, the earliest days of the industry: Swiss-made xenon solar simulators engineered to the lowest measurement uncertainty, classified to IEC 60904-9 and traceable to METAS, with the methods to keep them accurate as PV technology keeps changing.
One engineer, one conviction: a solar measurement you can trust.
Pasan began with Pierre-René Beljean, who set out to build instruments that could tell you exactly what a solar device was worth, repeatably and traceably. At a time when photovoltaics was barely an industry, he was already engineering for the lowest possible measurement uncertainty.
That conviction still defines the company. Every Pasan simulator, from the first xenon benches to today's HighLIGHT line, is the continuation of the standard he set in Neuchâtel.
A standard, one milestone at a time.
Four and a half decades of Swiss xenon metrology, from a typewritten order to the instrument the industry rates itself against.
- 1978
The first order, typed on a typewriter.
Pierre-René Beljean writes Pasan's very first purchase order on a typewriter. It is the start of a discipline that barely exists yet: measuring solar devices accurately enough to trade them.
- 1982
Pasan SA is founded.
The company is formally registered in Neuchâtel. The xenon solar simulator becomes Pasan's signature: a flash of artificial sunlight, controlled tightly enough to rate a module's power as a number you can defend.
- 1990s
Sun Simulator 3a (SS3a).
The third-generation xenon bench raises the bar on spectral quality, uniformity and stability, and earns Pasan its reputation as the reference laboratories build around. The pursuit of class-leading uncertainty becomes the house style.
- 2006
Sun Simulator 3b (SS3b): the world standard.
Pasan releases the SS3b. It becomes the instrument the industry rates itself against: an estimated 99% of the solar modules made today are measured, directly or by traceable reference, against an SS3b.
- 2007
Pasan is acquired by 3S.
Pasan joins 3S, broadening its reach into the fast-growing module-manufacturing market while keeping its simulators designed and calibrated in Neuchâtel. The same year, Pasan's current CEO joins the company.
- 2010
Part of Meyer Burger.
Pasan joins Meyer Burger Technology, anchoring the group's PV-measurement capability while continuing to design and calibrate its simulators in Switzerland.
- 2025
Pasan joins the Avalon ST group.
Pasan becomes part of the Avalon ST group, pairing four decades of xenon metrology heritage with Avalon's advanced LED solar-simulator platforms. Together they span the full range of PV measurement, from the production line to the laboratory to space.
- Today
The solar reference, still made in Neuchâtel.
Designed, built and calibrated in Switzerland, Pasan instruments rate the modules leaving the world's largest factories and calibrate the reference devices national labs depend on. Same conviction, same address, lower uncertainty than ever.
The firsts that became the standard.
Engineered in Neuchâtel. Supported worldwide.
Designed, built and calibrated in Switzerland, with sales and service partners across the major PV manufacturing and research regions, including China, the USA, Turkey, South Korea and India.
Engineered, built and calibrated in Switzerland.
Every Pasan simulator is designed, manufactured and calibrated in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and delivered worldwide from a European supply chain. There is no export-licence exposure and no single-region dependency, so a laboratory or gigafactory anywhere can specify a Pasan system and count on uninterrupted delivery, spare parts and recalibration for the life of the instrument.
From the gigafactory to the open road.
Pasan instruments rate the modules leaving the world's largest factories, calibrate the reference devices national labs depend on, qualify the multijunction cells that fly on satellites, and characterise the panels on record-setting solar cars.
The science behind the measurement.
Standards and peer-reviewed work on the topics our instruments are built around.
Solar simulator standards & classification
Measurement uncertainty & calibration traceability
Capacitive cells & long-pulse IV measurement
Perovskite hysteresis & emerging PV
Space solar cells & AM0
Pasan & Avalon ST.
Pasan is part of the Avalon ST group, pairing four decades of xenon metrology heritage with Avalon's advanced LED solar-simulator platforms, together covering the full span of PV measurement, from the production line to the laboratory to space.