Aug 3 2007
Arrowhead Research Corporation announced that its majority-owned subsidiary, Unidym, Inc., has signed a joint development agreement with InterPhases Research, a developer of novel thin-film solar cell technology. The joint development effort will focus on using Unidym’s proprietary transparent electrodes with InterPhases’ solar cells made from copper indium selenide (CIS) films. InterPhases’ CIS cells are among the emerging thin-film solar cell technologies that promise to be highly competitive in the overall solar cell product market, which was worth $10.6 billion in 2006 and is expected to grow to $18.5 billion by 2011 according to Solarbuzz, an international solar energy research and consulting company.
“Unidym’s transparent electrodes provide a better match to InterPhases’ unconventional CIS solar cells,” explained Shalini Menezes, Director of Research and Development at InterPhases Research. “Additionally, because Unidym’s transparent electrodes are printable with a low-temperature solution-based process, they offer a significant cost advantage relative to alternative transparent electrodes.”
“We are excited to work with InterPhases Research to integrate Unidym’s printable transparent electrodes with their thin-film CIS technology,” stated Art Swift, President and CEO of Unidym. “We anticipate that Unidym’s transparent electrode technology will have superior performance and reduced cost, relative to transparent conducting oxides for InterPhases’ CIS solar cells, thus accelerating the commercialization of this exciting and potentially valuable technology.”