Tau Science Corporation Awarded $1M Phase II SBIR Grant to Develop Advanced Metrology for PV Solar

Online, August 30, 2013 (Newswire.com) - Tau Science Corporation, producers of device characterization equipment for photovoltaic solar cell and solar panel manufacturers, announced that it has been awarded a $1 million Department of Energy grant for the continued development of its proprietary FlashQE® technology. Work done through the award will help the PV industry increase the lifetime and reliability of solar panels while decreasing the cost to consumers.

Quantum Efficiency (QE) is a fundamental technique used to characterize a solar cell's ability to convert light to electricity as a function of wavelength. The data, used to gain insight about device performance, material properties, and defectivity, was previously available only in the laboratory environment due to the limitations of conventional light sources. Tau Science's innovative FlashQE technology utilizes a solid state LED light source and a sophisticated signaling scheme to speed up the measurement hundreds of times, fast enough to operate in the high-throughput PV manufacturing environment.

"The technology provides real-time device characterization in a manufacturing environment that is simply unobtainable by conventional means," explains Gregory Horner, Chief Technology Officer, "This allows our customers to react quickly to process excursions and maximize the yield of their lines."

"This award comes at an exciting time for Tau Science," said James Hudson, President. "We have started seeing the larger, more mature manufacturers significantly increase their reliance on process control as a way to minimize their warranty liability and increase the yield of their existing infrastructure. These are complex problems with requirements that vary between manufacturers and PV technologies- this award will accelerate our learning and allow us to bring QE characterization to the broadest range of solar cell morphologies."

Tau Science Corporation is a privately held, leading producer of inline and laboratory inspection equipment for photovoltaic solar manufacturers and researchers. Tau Science has facilities in Beaverton, Oregon and a global distribution network. More information can be found at http://www.tauscience.com .