News — FTO

Researchers at Tohoku University have discovered a method to quickly, cost-effectively, and non-destructively detect carbon impurities in nitride-based crystals that are used in electrical and optical devices such as LEDs and transistors.  Light can be used to analyze the crystals for defects through omnidirectional photoluminescence (ODPL) spectroscopy, which is a marked improvement over the current methodologies available to the semiconductor industry.  ODPL illuminates the crystal, in this case gallium nitride (GaN), and is absorbed by it, exciting the electrons within.  When they return to their ground state, the crystal emits light to dissipate the absorbed energy.  Spectroscopy will then determine...

　　The new perovskite solar cells have achieved an efficiency of 20.1 per cent and can be manufactured at low temperatures, which reduces the cost and expands the number of possible applications. Credit: Kevin Soobrian 　　A U of T Engineering innovation could make printing solar cells as easy and inexpensive as printing a newspaper. Dr. Hairen Tan and his team have cleared a critical manufacturing hurdle in the development of a relatively new class of solar devices called perovskite solar cells. This alternative solar technology could lead to low-cost, printable solar panels capable of turning nearly any surface into a power...

Milpitas, CA based smart windows startup, View, gets $100M megafunding, which adds to the total funding of View to half a billion dollars so far. The smart windows that companies like View has been developing is far more expensive than traditional architectural glass but tints automatically, and is considered to be less costly in the long run. According to IndustryARC, the global smart glass market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 20% to reach more than $5.8 billion in revenue by 2020.  But what are the driving forces for the rapid growth of the smart windows market?   Disruptive technologies...

A team of scientists from the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) determined that surface recombination limits the performance of polycrystalline perovskite solar cells. Considerable research into perovskites at NREL and elsewhere has proved the material's effectiveness at converting sunlight into electricity, routinely topping 20 percent efficiency. The sunlight creates mobile electrons whose movement generates the power but upon encountering defects can slip into a non-productive process. Known as a recombination, this process reduces the efficiency of a solar cell. For the cell to be the most efficient, the recombination must occur slowly. MSE Supplies is a leading supplier...

Over the last several decades, scientists and engineers at national labs, universities, and private companies continue to explore and develop new types of cells and push the capabilities of existing ones, because an ideal technology is yet to be developed. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) maintains a plot of compiled values of highest confirmed conversion efficiencies for research cells, from 1976 to the present, for a range of photovoltaic technologies. IEEE Spectrum recently partnered with three of the world’s leading independent test labs to create an interactive and updated history of record-breaking photovoltaic (PV) cells. While the full charts are...