Bernin, France, May 22, 2013 — Soitec (Euronext), a world leader in generating and manufacturing revolutionary semiconductor materials for the electronics and energy industries,announced today the industry’s first four-junction solar cell device, which works under concentrated sunlight, putting the company on the solar-energy industry’s technology roadmap at a world-class level of an outstanding 43.6 percent efficiency. This technology development made possible through strong collaboration between solar cell device and epitaxial growth centers of expertise combined with Soitec’s decades-long leadership in substrate-bonding and layer-transfer technologies – validates the unique roadmap enabling, thanks to the four junctions structure to target the 50-percent efficiency level. This roadmap marks a major competitiveness breakthrough in the photovoltaic industry.
Image of a solar cell wafer with four-junction concentrator cells and test structures.
IV-characteristics of the currently best four-junction solar cell.
Source:SOITEC
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