Solar3D announces mass scale manufacturing design for 3-D solar cell

SANTA BARBARA, USA: Solar3D Inc., the developer of a breakthrough 3-dimensional solar cell technology to maximize the conversion of sunlight into electricity, today announced that its design will take advantage of low cost semiconductor processes to enable mass production.

Inspired by light management techniques used in fiber optic devices, the company’s innovative solar cell technology utilizes a 3-dimensional design to trap sunlight inside micro-photovoltaic structures where photons bounce around until they are converted into electrons. The company’s management believes that this breakthrough solar cell design will dramatically change the economics of solar energy.

Jim Nelson, CEO of Solar3D, commented: “In the solar industry, it is not enough to have high efficiency, you must also be low cost. We started our company with the mantra of ‘Breakthrough Product, Common Manufacturing,’ and I am pleased to report that we are right on track.”

Nelson continued: “The key to the successful low cost fabrication of our 3D solar cell is that we can use existing semiconductor manufacturing facilities and machines. This is important for two reasons:

a) The semiconductor manufacturing technology we are designing for was perfected in the 1990s. So, there will be no significant operational bugs in the machines or the processes, and the technology has only gotten better over time.

b) Because of our ability to use existing machines and facilities, there will be little or no new need to ‘invent’ new machines or construct new facilities just to make our 3D solar cell.”

A photovoltaic solar cell is basically a diode, and a diode is the most basic building block of modern day microprocessors and electronics. The micro-photovoltaic structures that make up our Solar3D cell are essentially diodes. By designing these “diodes” in the correct shape and size, the company believes its 3D structures can easily be produced in widely available high speed semiconductor manufacturing facilities.

Nelson concluded, “In the end, we intend to achieve what every solar innovator hopes for: More Power, in a Smaller Space, for Less Money.”