US Patent Office Awards Solar-Tectic LLC a Major Patent
Solar-Tectic LLC ("ST") has announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a major patent (over 50 claims) for a wide range of technologies including the growth of single crystal, highly textured, or large grained semiconductor films on inexpensive substrates, such as ordinary glass. The technologies were invented by the late Dr. Praveen Chaudhari, winner of the 1995 U.S. Medal of Technology, and have applications in various industries such as solar, displays and LEDs.
US patent (12/774,465) titled "Methods of Growing Heteroepitaxial Single Crystal or Large Grained Semiconductor Films and Devices Thereon" discloses a modified Vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) thin-film (TF) growth technique that for the first time allows for low temperature deposition of exceptionally high quality semiconductor films from a variety of materials such as silicon, germanium, and GaN, on inexpensive substrates.
The cost-effective nanowire-like but thin-film growth process involving eutectic alloys is very well suited for large-scale industrial applications and can be carried out using common deposition processes currently used in various industries, such as e-beam, CVD, etc.
