I think I may have misunderstood the manufacturing process. To my reading, it looks like they have 3mm-thick wafers, accumulate a 20mm-thick layer of hydrogen, which then shears off in a furnace, leaving...a 3mm-thick wafer. Which they started with. Thanks in advance to whoever explains how I've misunderstood this.
EDIT: Oh, I neglected to pay attention to units. The above should be 3mm, 20-micrometer, and 2.98mm, respectively, which means the sheet shearing off is 0.002mm thick. This is seriously cool. Thanks for everyone's patience.
They must have meant 20 micrometer thick layers since they also state that they are "a tenth of the thickness" of standard "200-micrometer-thick (0.2mm)" wafers.
Exactly, the point is that the 20micron-layer of silicon that was shearing off is now the solar cell. Compare that to 200micron sheets, as used currently, and you see where the savings come from (i.e. you can get up to 10x more solar cells from a standard waver).
The hydrogen layer accumulates below the current surface of the silicon. When you put it in a furnace, it causes a very thin layer of silicon to shear off from the 3mm wafer.
EDIT: Oh, I neglected to pay attention to units. The above should be 3mm, 20-micrometer, and 2.98mm, respectively, which means the sheet shearing off is 0.002mm thick. This is seriously cool. Thanks for everyone's patience.