The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued Solar-Tectic LLC of Briarcliff Manor, NY, USA with a patent for technology that allows the growth of single-crystal semiconductor films on inexpensive substrates such as glass. The patent is jointly owned with Dartmouth College, NH, USA.
Solar-Tectic is a thin-film specialist with a primary focus on developing single-crystal semiconductor films on glass or other inexpensive substrates. Its technology was invented by the late Dr Praveen Chaudhari (materials scientist and winner of the 1995 US National Medal of Technology and Innovation) and has applications in various industries in addition to solar, such as displays and LEDs. Solar-Tectic is a member of iClean, a group of companies harbored at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Albany, NY.
Solar-Tectic claims that US patent 8,916,455 ‘Method of Growing Heteroepitaxial Single Crystal of Large Grained Semiconductor Films on Glass Substrates and Devices Thereon’ promises to solve a long-standing challenge in materials science, namely the growth of single-crystal semiconductor films directly on amorphous substrates such as glass. The technology can be applied using a variety of semiconductor materials such as silicon and germanium. The inexpensive, low-temperature deposition process, involving eutectic alloys, is suited to large-scale industrial applications and can be carried out using either the common electron-beam (e-beam) method or a laser, adds the firm. The latter approach means that film deposition can take place out of vacuum.
