Shrink Nanotechnologies, Inc. ("Shrink"), an innovative
nanotechnology company developing products and licensing opportunities in the
solar energy production, medical diagnostics and sensors and biotechnology
research and development tools businesses, today announced a strategic alliance
with Inabata America Corporation to market and sell the Company`s OptiSol Solar
Concentrator technologies and ShrinkChip Rapid Prototyping Solution (RPS).
Inabata America Corporation is a subsidiary of Japan-based Inabata & Co., which
in 2008 had $5 billion in sales. Through its global network of 2300 employees in
72 facilities covering 17 countries, Inabata provides solutions and services,
including outsourced business development, marketing and a sales network that
focuses on niche industries including the solar sector.
"With an innovative approach to selling, our strategic alliance with Inabata is
an ideal relationship which focuses on first gaining acceptance with the R&D
departments of market-leading corporations and bringing our products to market
faster by bypassing the business development stage," said Mark L. Baum, CEO of
Shrink Nanotechnologies. "Inabata is a leader in the solar sector with a keen
focus on plastics, which in 2008 represented approximately 38 percent of their
business. We look forward to a long-term and prosperous relationship with
Inabata."
As more and more people search for cleaner technologies to meet the world`s
energy and power demands, the urgency for solar technology developers to meet
these needs has become imperative. In fact, the global solar photovoltaic market
surged to an estimated $37 billion for 2008, with an estimated 51 percent
compound annual growth rate through 2011, according to SET Energy. Shrink has
developed a new generation of disruptive plastic-based solar products using our
unique nanostructures and patent-pending photovoltaic quantum dot integration
designs which allow for lower cost, higher efficiency solar products that absorb
more of the solar rainbow.
The OptiSol SolarConcentrator is a nanotechnology-based plastic solar
concentrator and solar film that is a first-of-its-kind in the solar
photovoltaic industry. Traditional silicon solar cells absorb only a small
fraction of the total incident solar radiation potential, with a majority of the
light either reflected or converted to thermal energy. Based on electromagnetic
non-optical principles and using PolyShrink technology, the OptiSol enhances the
capabilities and efficiency of existing solar cell designs by focusing and
tuning the incident solar radiation from the sun for optimal silicon absorption,
with less of the total spectrum lost as heat or reflection. OptiSol can be made
from biodegradable corn-based plastics, thereby offering the first "renewable"
renewable energy source.
ShrinkChip RPS is designed to be a low cost biochip prototyping station with an
accompanying software suite which provides for the rapid design, fabrication and
manufacture of customizable biological research chips, including more
complicated microfluidic assays such as integrated lab-on-a-chip (LOC) devices.
It allows researchers to develop customized biochip designs in hours as opposed
to weeks and at a fraction of the cost.