IBM, Japan's TOK tie up for thin film solar cell technology

16 June 2008

Mumbai: International Business Machines Corporation has teamed up with semiconductor process company Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (TOK) to develop more efficient, cheaper solar power technologies using thin film technology, the companies said in a release.

IBM will combine its expertise in manufacturing cells with TOK's semiconductor process technology to cut the cost of the clean energy source, the companies said.

The IBM-TOK partnership aims to create thin film technology that will double the efficiency of solar modules, making them capable of converting more of the sun's rays into electricity.

The partnership will focus on developing new methods for printing copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) cells that can turn more than 15 per cent of sunlight into power - a big leap from the 6 per cent to 12 per cent efficiency that current solar CIGS makers have achieved.

Researchers at the US Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory had, in April, set a new efficiency record of 19.9 per cent for CIGS cells, nearing the record for multi-crystalline silicon cells of 20.3 per cent.

The partnership aims to create a process for making the cells cheaper enough to give it "grid parity," the level in which solar power becomes competitive with traditional forms of electricity generation, said IBM Research's Supratik Guha.