Solar ♦ news digest


Bernhard Beck, Chief Executive Officer of Belectric Holding. “By joining forces to create a world-class project delivery platform, we hope to strengthen both companies’ relationships with key stakeholders including project developers and investors at a time when prices of electricity from solar power plants can already compete with the prices for conventionally generated electricity in a growing number of regions.”


Belectric is a vertically integrated company and develops and constructs utility-scale ground-mounted solar power plants and roof-mounted photovoltaic systems. The firm has a presence in more than 20 countries and a global pipeline of 5GWp in different stages of development.


Novel way to grow thin films of germanium


A new method to grow germanium crystals at low temperatures may lead to next-generation large-scale integrated circuits and future flexible electronics


Researchers have developed a new technique to produce thin films of germanium crystals - key components for next-generation electronic devices such as advanced large-scale integrated circuits and flexible electronics, which are required for gadgets that move or bend.


Unlike conventional methods, the new approach does not require high temperatures or other crystals to act as seeds to grow the germanium crystal. And, the researchers say, the new method can be used to produce germanium films with a very large area, allowing for more potential applications.


“This is the realisation of the dreams of crystal-growth researchers,” says Taizoh Sadoh of Kyushu University. “This unique method will open new ways to create advanced flexible electronics.”


Sadoh is an author of the paper describing the new work, which appears in the AIP Publishing journal Applied Physics Letters.


Charged particles move through germanium more readily than they do through silicon, making germanium a good material for electronics. In particular, it is a promising material for the thin-film transistors that are needed for flexible electronics.


However, for use in flexible electronics, the germanium would have to be grown on malleable materials, which tend to soften at temperatures above 300°C. The challenge, says Sadoh, is to grow germanium at lower


October 2013 www.compoundsemiconductor.net 107


High-speed germanium thin-film transistors enable next- generation electronics


Using gold as a catalyst, Sadoh and his colleagues were able to grow germanium crystals at a temperature of about 250°C. They were also able to grow them in such a way that their crystal structure has the proper orientation and electrical properties necessary for technological applications.


This work is described in detail in the paper, “Nucleation controlled gold-induced-crystallization for selective formation of Ge(100) and (111) on insulator at low- temperature (~250°C)” by Jong-Hyeok Park et al in the journal Applied Physics Letters. The paper can be accessed via http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4819015.


Stacked solar cells can handle energy of 70,000 suns


With a new connection, the overall efficiency of solar energy devices, including GaAs based ones, can reduce the cost of solar energy production


North Carolina State University researchers have come up with a new technique for improving the connections between stacked solar cells.


This discovery should improve the overall efficiency of solar energy devices and reduce the cost of solar energy production. The new connections can allow these cells to operate at solar concentrations of 70,000 suns worth of energy without losing much voltage as “wasted energy” or heat.


temperatures.


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