News No. 11

US Patent Office (USPTO) Awards Solar-Tectic LLC a Major Patent for Thin-Film Solar Cell and Semiconductor Technology
The patent is for technology invented by the late Dr. Praveen Chaudhari, a recipient of the U.S. Medal of Technology and Innovation, and covers technology for a wide range of electronic applications including thin-film solar cells, LEDs, TFTs, FETs, solar inverters, and nanowire devices.
BRIARCLIFF MANOR, N.Y., April 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Solar-Tectic LLC (“ST”) announced today 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.
For general inquiries or for licensing of the technology, please contact Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP  (davis@clm.com), 212-238-8850.
About Solar-Tectic LLC (“ST”):  Solar-Tectic LLC is a thin-film specialist with a primary focus on developing patented technologies for single crystal or highly textured semiconductor films on glass or metal tapes.  The company has a wide portfolio of technologies and IP towards this end, all based on inventions by the late Dr. Praveen Chaudhari, materials scientist and winner of the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation (1995). This past year several papers were published reporting advances in R&D including “Highly textured silicon [111] crystalline thin-film on buffered soda-lime glass by e-beam evaporation” by S. McMahon et al. and “Crystalline Al203 on buffered soda-lime glass by e-beam” by A Chaudhari et al.