GSO-based RF Micro Devices joins solar energy competition (BizJournals)

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GSO-based RF Micro Devices joins solar energy competitionThe Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area - by Matt Evans Staff writer

The latest entrant into the race to make solar energy commercially viable on a large scale, wireless chip-maker RF Micro Devices, will be competing with others in the Triad with their eyes on the same prize.

RF Micro, which primarily manufacturers advanced semiconductors for cell phones and other wireless devices, announced a partnership this week with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory or NREL.

The company and the agency will collaborate on research into ways to use the gallium arsenide that RF Micro fabricates in huge volumes for microchips to make high-performance photo-voltaic solar cells instead.

The goal is to use gallium arsenide’s unique properties to make a cell that can convert more than 40 percent of the concentrated solar rays that hit it into useable electricity and can also be mass produced at a reasonable cost. Currently, the highest solar conversion efficiency performance recorded is 40.8 percent, according to NREL.