Sunovia Energy Technologies Inc. and EPIR Technologies Inc. (EPIR) say they are in the process of developing advanced cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells with the assistance of expert II-VI materials scientists and engineers.
EPIR's expertise in II-VI materials, under the leadership of Dr. Siva Sivananthan, has been proven over the past decade and is being transferred to next-generation solar cells and unique manufacturing techniques, the companies say.
‘Dr. Sivananthan is acknowledged as the pioneer of the growth of II-VI semiconductor compounds on silicon, and his knowledge is second to none in this field,’ comments Dr. Fikri Aqariden, senior research scientist and production manager at DRS Infrared Technologies.
Sivananthan, president of EPIR and the director of the Microphysics Laboratory (MPL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has pioneered the molecular-beam epitaxial (MBE) growth of CdTe on Si since 1984. Also, Sunovia and EPIR have a network of close collaborative relationships with the major U.S. Department of Defense and industrial labs involved in infrared detection and imaging – the Army Research Laboratory, the Night Vision Electronic Sensors Directorate, BAE, Lockheed Martin, DRS, Raytheon, Rockwell, Texas Instruments and other laboratories around the world.
