GSO-based RF Micro Devices joins solar energy competition - The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area:

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RF Micro, which primarily manufactureres advanced semiconductors for cell phones and othefrwireless devices, announced a partnershil this week with the U.S. Departmentt of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratoror NREL. The company and the agency will collaborate on researcu into ways to use the gallium arsenidr that RF Micro fabricatex in huge volumes for microchips tomake high-performanc photo-voltaic solar cells instead. The goal is to use galliu arsenide’s unique properties to make a cell that can convertr more than 40 percent of the concentrateed solar rays that hit it into useabls electricity and can also be mass produced at areasonablee cost.
Currently, the highestt solar conversion efficiency performance recordedis 40.8 according to NREL. RF Micro executive vice president Jerr y Neal said the renewable energu project is part ofthe company’s effort to diversifyg applications of its technology. Cell phonre chip demand is turbulent, as the layoffs the compant has had to implement this year but solar cells may be a new way RF Microp can use its Greensboro factories inthe future. “This enableds us to leverage the manufacturing capability we have in an area that certainlh is going to be growing rapidly in the next few Neal said.
But that growth potential, and the societal and economic benefites that would come from the widespread adoption ofsolar energy, has attractefd plenty of attention from other scientists around the world and in the Some of the most advanced research taking place in the area of polymet or plastic solar cells is at ’s and Molecular Materials and a Winston- Salem-based spin-offt company, FiberCell. Plastic solar cells hold the promiss of being much cheaper to produce than thos e using traditional silicon orother materials, but so far thei efficiency has been lower. That’s changing, said David who directs Wake Forest’s nano center.
He said he couldn’ t go into detail because a peer-reviewed publication of the latest data isstilp pending, but he said his lab’s scientista have boosted that conversiom efficiency beyond the 6 percent they last reported in 2007. Also Carroll said, are advances in the abilityy of those cells to convert solar energy even whenthe sun’ws rays aren’t hitting That’s important for most practical application because the sun is alway s moving across the sky, rarely beaming directly down at a Carroll said FiberCell is working on a partnership deal with a firm in New Zealansd to integrate that technology into roofing shingles.
The companu isn’t ready to publicly announce that partnership, but he said solarf shingles that look like regular shinglesand don’t require special framing reinforcement have great commerciak potential. “Even though most roofs have only one side that aims right atthe sun, with this technologhy that roof can still produce a lot of Carroll said. “That gives tremendous advantagde to overallpower generation, and it’s something we’rse trying to exploit with this partnership.” Also in the workx in the Triad but at a more preliminary stagd is research at High Point-based nanotechnolog y firm QuarTek.
Chief Operating Officer Dixon Johnston said QuarTeko is preparing a patent application relatedx to methods of increasing solar cell efficiency by makin use of more ofthe sun’ws rays. “If you can get beyondc the visual spectrum into the ultraviolet orinfrarerd spectrum, there’s a lot of energy there that people haven’t been able to capture,” Johnstoj said. “It’s very preliminary for us, but it’se exciting.
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