news digest ♦ Solar connector.
The output power level of the PREMIUM PLUS option is specified at ≥25 mW (compared to 11 mW before) for lasers in an SOT5.6, SOT9, or TO8 housing. The PREMIUM PLUS version is now also available in a butterfly housing with an output power level of ≥13 mW.
that could be used as clean fuel. Such a device requires efficient light-absorbing materials that attract and hold sunlight to drive the chemical reactions involved in water splitting.
Semiconductors like GaAs and silicon are excellent light absorbers - as is clear from their widespread use in solar panels. However, these materials rust when submerged in the type of water solutions found in such systems.
Solar TSMC Solar takes on CIGS &
CdTe expert Noufi The Taiwanese subsidiary has taken on US NREL veteran to push its CIGS development
TSMC Solar has engaged Rommel Noufi in a long-term consulting capacity, to augment its CIGS R&D program.
Noufi is a 33-year veteran of the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) where he was Principal Scientist and lead the team driving CIGS and CdTe cell research. He has authored over 190 publications and has eight patents.
TSMC Solar has a track record of R&D achievement, having produced a TUV-SUD verified, 15.7 percent efficient module with production equipment on its production line in mid-2013. The company is currently expanding its capacity from 40MW to reach 120MW in Q4 of this year.
Commenting on the decision to engage Noufi, TSMC Solar President Ying-Chen Chao says, “Dr. Noufi played a key role in the development of CIGS as a leading photovoltaic material. The addition of his deep CIGS experience to our R&D effort puts us on solid footing to maintain our rapid improvement of module efficiency over the next several years.”
Noufi sees great potential for CIGS efficiency improvements, “CIGS efficiencies in the lab have reached 20.9 percent, with a clear path to achieving 23 percent. With its strong R&D, manufacturing and equipment engineering skill set TSMC Solar is uniquely equipped to develop this potential and bring it into production.”
Stabilising GaAs and GaP in solar fuel generators
Scientists have devised a method to protect materials such as gallium arsenide and gallium phosphide in a solar-fuel generator
Researchers around the world are trying to develop solar- driven generators that can split water, yielding hydrogen gas
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www.compoundsemiconductor.net June 2014
Postdoctoral scholar Shu Hu (foreground) demonstrates how to make photoelectrochemical measurements of a solar-fuels cell (Credit: Robert Paz)
Historically, it has been particularly difficult to come up with a light-absorbing material that will robustly carry out the oxidation half-reaction. Researchers have tried, without much success, a variety of materials and numerous techniques for coating the common light-absorbing semiconductors.
The problem has been that if the protective layer is too thin, the aqueous solution penetrates through and corrodes the
Now Caltech researchers at the Joint Centre for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) have devised a method for protecting these common semiconductors from corrosion even as the materials continue to absorb light efficiently. The finding paves the way for the use of these materials in solar-fuel generators.
The research, led by Shu Hu, a postdoctoral scholar in chemistry at Caltech, appears in the May 30th issue of the journal Science.
“For the better part of a half century, these materials have been considered off the table for this kind of use,” says Nate Lewis, the George L. Argyros, professor of chemistry at Caltech, and the principal investigator on the paper. “But we didn’t give up on developing schemes by which we could protect them, and now these technologically important semiconductors are back on the table.”
In the type of integrated solar-fuel generator that JCAP is striving to produce, two half-reactions must take place - one involving the oxidation of water to produce oxygen gas; the other involving the reduction of water, yielding hydrogen gas.
Each half-reaction requires both a light-absorbing material to serve as the photoelectrode and a catalyst to drive the chemistry. What’s more, the two reactions must be physically separated by a barrier to avoid producing an explosive mixture of their products.
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