news review
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World record solar cells
Sunovia Energy and partner EPIR In contrast, the highest reported Voc for a the first ever high efficiency monolithic, two-
Technologies have announced that they CdTe solar cell is 0.91 V, representing about junction solar cell using CdTe or any other II-
have fabricated single-junction and two- 76% of the theoretical maximum for CdTe. VI material.”
junction cadmium telluride (CdTe) based By fabricating II-VI solar cells with open
solar cells that have far surpassed the long- circuit voltages close to the theoretical Dr. Siva Sivananthan, founder and CEO of
standing world record open circuit voltage upper limit for the materials utilized, the EPIR Technologies says, “Over the past 2
(Voc) for thin film CdTe solar cells. The Partners have developed high efficiency years, EPIR and Sunovia have collectively
Partners’ single-junction and two-junction CdTe-based solar cells, which will grown from 25 to almost 70 employees and
devices exceeded the highest Voc values accelerate the push of clean solar- will add many more manufacturing jobs as
ever reported publicly by research generated electricity towards grid parity. we commercialize this technology. These
institutions on thin film CdTe solar cells breakthroughs are a tremendous step
(including NREL and others) by over 45%. The Partners recently announced the forward for our national security and energy
expansion of their pilot production facilities, independence goals. I am tremendously
The results reported by the partners will and are working to complete the initial 100 proud of the team at EPIR, and am pleased
enable the companies to create solar cells MW of manufacturing capacity. Their to be partnered with such an outstanding
with much higher efficiencies than other proprietary cell manufacturing process group of professionals at Sunovia.”
CdTe-based solar cell technologies. Open requires substantially less space than
circuit voltage has traditionally been the competing solar technologies, and is Carl Smith, founder and CEO of Sunovia
most difficult performance metric to optimize scalable at a fraction of the previous cost. Energy Technologies added, “In one of the
in CdTe solar cells and the Partners’ CdTe- most difficult economic climates in history,
based (also known as II-VI materials) solar According to Dr. Michael Carmody, Senior we have remained intently focused on our
cells achieved open circuit voltages of 1.34 Director for Development of Photovoltaic goals, and together we have grown rapidly.
V and 1.75 V in the single-junction and two- Materials at EPIR Technologies, “These are This new solar technology that Dr.
junction configurations, respectively. The by far the highest Voc measurements ever Sivananthan’s team has invented has far-
1.34 V value in the single-junction exhibited by a CdTe-based solar cell. There reaching benefits that will not only positively
configuration is more than 95% of the is no data in the literature that comes close impact national security, energy and our
theoretical upper limit for the II-VI alloy used to what we have achieved, and we believe environment, but will also bring
by the Partners. that our two-junction device also represents manufacturing jobs back to the States.”
Broadcasting improvements
backhaul amplifiers
including its TGA4531.
TriQuint Semiconductor is enabling network through 2013,” he added. The new amplifier does
operators to efficiently and economically the work of two
meet the demand for broadband services TriQuint recently acquired narrowband devices,
with new solutions for cable systems, cable TV and fiber-to-the- covering the critical 17-24
microwave radio and optical networks. home (FTTH) RFIC expert GHz frequency range with a
TriAccess Technologies. single device. Highly linear,
“Network operators are seeing substantial TriAccess offers a ‘triple-play’ the TGA4531 enables
increases in radio, optical and cable line-up of highly linear amplifiers manufacturers to meet complex
network traffic because of the growing with low power consumption for modulation requirements while reducing
popularity of home and mobile data internet-video-voice services. Demand their overall bill of materials.
applications. Operators are looking for cost- for TriAccess products has doubled as
effective ways to expand capacity while cable and telecom companies race to TriQuint enables high-speed optical
lowering operational expenses. Greener, enhance networks for high-speed networks with products like its TGA4943-
more efficient systems that use less energy multimedia content delivery. SL—the market’s first surface mount
for amplification and cooling are especially amplifier for 40Gb/s (gigabit per second)
appealing,” observed Asif Anwar, Director, New TriQuint RFIC products developed by systems. In addition to offering surface
GaAs and Compound Semiconductor TriAccess Technologies meet the DOCSIS mount convenience for easier assembly, the
Technologies Service, Strategy Analytics. 3.0 based cable TV systems needs. These TGA4943-SL uses only about 50% the
‘greener’ products can reduce power power of other solutions – just 2.1 Watts.
“TriQuint is in a good position to take consumption up to 50% and can cut overall
advantage of a projected 10% CAGR for PC board areas up to 30%. TriQuint’s new TriQuint was recently chosen by Huawei
point-to-point radio products and a cable TGA2807-SM is another DOCSIS 3.0 Technologies as a strategic partner for new
infrastructure CAGR of 14% through 2013. cable TV amplifier that can replace two optical network system development based
The fiber optic IC market CAGR should conventional solutions. on the strength of its technology and
more than double during this period while TriQuint’s portfolio of green products that
the emerging 40Gb/s segment will lead TriQuint is advancing 3G/4G wireless significantly reduce power usage. See
growth with a projected 78% CAGR network infrastructure with microwave radio these new devices at EuMW.
10 www.compoundsemiconductor.net October 2009
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