TAUNTON – NASA has awarded Kopin Corp. a two-year, $600,000 contract to develop more efficient solar cells.
The project, part of NASA’s Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, calls for the Taunton-based company to produce nanostructured solar cells comprised of indium gallium phosphide (InGaP) materials.
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The goal is to create solar cells that are more efficient and less expensive than conventional technology. “The material structures used in conventional solar cell designs significantly limit their power conversion efficiency and performance, requiring a trade-off between current and voltage,” Roger Welser, Kopin’s director of new product development, said in a statement.
Welser said Kopin will use the same proprietary material for the project that is used in the company’s heterojunction bipolar transistor wafers, which are inside billions of mobile phones.
Last spring, Kopin won another $600,000 contract from NASA to produce high-efficiency solar cells that are resistant to the extreme conditions found near the sun. (READ MORE)
The projects are part of Kopin’s long-term effort to tap into the growing renewable-energy market by developing highly-efficient, low-cost technologies.
Kopin Corp. (Nasdaq: KOPN) is a maker of lightweight, power-efficient, ultra-small liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) for a variety of applications, under trademarks including CyberDisplay and The NanoSemiconductor Co. For additional information, visit www.kopin.com.
