Kungfu, you have no idea how business works. Natcore is fully capable of developing their own tech, so will never go to GE to develop a partnership of their ip in any form, because that would dilute their ownership way more than a pp would.
They are raising the money to develop the ip, so try to focus on the facts in their MD&A where they state it is at least Nov before any products are developed, instead of filling this board with emotional fluff posts.
? Selective emitter by LPD
The top surface of a solar cell, known as the emitter, consists of silicon doped with the element
phosphorous. Current commercial cells have a uniform concentration of phosphorous across the surface,
but it is well understood that enhanced performance can be obtained by having phosphorous
concentration high near the electrical contacts and low elsewhere. This approach, known as selective
emitter, can boost performance by as much as 1% absolute (5% relative), but is difficult to implement in
manufacture. LPD films, patterned by a proprietary Natcore approach, simplify the process for
producing selective emitter cells with minimal cost increase. This process could be ready for pilot line
in five months.
? Black silicon
Current solar cells absorb only about 95% of incident light due to reflection. Furthermore, absorption is
reduced when light arrives on a solar module at high angles. Natcore, in cooperation with NREL
(National Renewable Energy Laboratory), has developed a process for etching the surface of solar cells
to make them absorb almost all incident light (making them nearly completely black). Simulations
accounting for the increased absorption and improved angle sensitivity suggest that power output gains
as high as 10% relative are possible. At the same time, this process completely removes the silicon
nitride antireflection/passivation process from solar cell manufacture resulting in reduced manufacturing
cost. This process could be ready for pilot line in nine months.
? LPD passivation
Current solar cell fabrication deposits hydrogenated silicon nitride on the front of the solar cell to
provide both surface passivation and antireflection control. This approach is effective only for the ntype silicon surfaces used in today’s solar cells. Two strong new directions are emerging in the solar
cell industry. The first is to passivate the back surface of the cell and not use full area contacts and the
second is to invert the cell structure to have the emitter (top layer) be a p-type silicon material. Cell manufacturers are now searching for a low-cost way to passivate p-type silicon surfaces and have found
that a thin silicon oxide layer under the silicon nitride layer creates the passivation they need for the ptype silicon surfaces, whether they are at the front or rear. The PERC (passivated emitter rear contact)
cell has been shown to increase cell output by 15% to 20% and switching to the p-on-n cell structure has
eliminated the unavoidable light induced degradation that occurs in conventional n-on-p cells. Thermal
oxides are too expensive and CVD oxides are not effective because of their less-than-theoretical film
densities. The LPD oxide is the perfect solution for this problem. The LPD passivation process could
be production ready in nine months.
? Tandem quantum dot solar cell
Standard silicon solar cells by their physics waste some of the energy coming from shorter wavelength
light, notably green, blue, and ultraviolet light. Tandem cells, essentially a stack of two solar cells tuned
to avoid this loss, are capable of efficiencies of over 30%. These complex cells are currently very
expensive, and thus suitable only for applications such as aerospace. However, Natcore has developed a
technology that combines quantum dots with LPD-deposited layers to produce a “tandem” layer that can
be deposited on a conventional silicon solar cell to better harvest the shorter wavelength light. This
could lead to efficiency gains near 50% relative to conventional cells. This process could be ready for
pilot line in 18 months.
