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.”