7 July 2011

JDSU acquires assets from QuantaSol

Optoelectronic chip and module maker JDSU of Milpitas, CA, USA has acquired critical product design, patented intellectual property and other assets from UK-based QuantaSol Ltd, a designer and manufacturer of concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) solar cells that was spun off from Imperial College, London in 2007 and funded by the Low Carbon Accelerator and Imperial Innovations.

JDSU aims to boost its CPV cell product platform by leveraging QuantaSol’s multiple quantum well (MQW) technology, which raises the solar energy conversion efficiency of CPV cells. The firm plans to transfer key assets from QuantaSol to Milpitas over the next 6 months.

“The CPV market is gaining momentum with major installations happening worldwide,” says Alan Lowe, president of JDSU’s Communication & Commercial Optical Products (CCOP) division. “Incorporating key QuantaSol technology will allow us to further differentiate our products and expand our position in the CPV solar market as popularity for CPV continues to grow,” he adds. CPV installations are expected to grow 100-fold from 10MW in 2010 to more than 1GW by 2015, according to GreenTech Media.

JDSU says that its CPV cells are optimized to capture different parts of the sun’s spectrum using multiple junctions, resulting in conversion efficiencies that are expected to exceed 40% in the next few years (a range suiting solar system integrators). The CPV cells are designed specifically to capture concentrated sunlight at 500–1000 times its original power. JDSU says that additional benefits include a small footprint, improved temperature performance, less use of semiconductor materials, and lower cost per kilowatt compared with other photovoltaic technologies.

In addition to its new CPV technology for land installations, JDSU has been providing solar power products to the satellite industry for several decades. The firm also provides photovoltaic solutions for the digital monitoring of smart grid power plants.

See related items:

JDSU’s March-quarter revenue falls 4.6% to $455.4m

Tags: QuantaSol GaAs solar cell JDSU

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Visit: www.jdsu.com