GT Advanced Technologies Inc fka GTAT

[Netsurfer]

The original intent for Hyperion was to minimize the amount of Silicon used per solar cell. The current process of slicing the brick using wire saws end up with a cell that has 3 or 4 times the material needed to do the energy conversion. Hyperion gives you a much thinner cell and essentially eliminated the saw kerf loss. The down side of Hyperion is that handling these thin cells becomes a real challenge.......high breakage.
Hyperion is not readily compatible with current manufacturing processed. The thin cells must be mounted to some sort of carrier for handling and stringing into an active panel. Also the frontside / back side connections need to be modified to accommodate the "sandwich"
A new process needs to be developed around Hyperion. There may be some pilot plant activity going on but I do not think that wide spread adoption is not a short term reality. My guess is that any meaningful revenue is 18 to 24 months away.

Merlin is claimed to be compatible with existing process and is in active scaling an a Chinese R & D plant in California. I have to believe that this is a licensing play VS. and equipment sales.