A -- Innovative Deposition Technologies for Solar and Other Thin-Film Applications

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), operated by the University of California under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is seeking one or more industrial partners to assist in advancing and commercializing LANL's Ion Beam Assisted Deposition (IBAD) and Polymer Assisted Deposition (PAD) technologies for solar and other thin-film applications. Partnerships may take the form of Cooperative Research & Development Agreements (CRADA) and/or commercial licenses. Commercial licensees will have the option to obtain, up to and including, a non-exclusive license to the intellectual property in a pre-negotiated, defined field of use for reasonable compensation. CRADAs are expected to include funds-in to the Lab. LANL’s IBAD technology includes methods for depositing biaxially-oriented (aligned) oxides on a variety of substrates, as well as the growth of well-oriented quality silicon films on polycrystalline templates. A wide range of substrates and semiconductor materials can be produced with these methods, allowing for innovative performance designs and manufacturing flexibility with cost savings. LANL’s PAD technology includes methods for producing quality thin films of metal oxides on substrates using polymers as the solvent. Because no vacuum equipment is required this technology is cheaper than chemical vapor deposition. PAD has also shown better resistance to cracking than conventional “sol-gel” methods. LANL has demonstrated this technique with a variety of metal oxides and believes the same technique could be used with nitrides, sulfides, and carbides for lower-cost, higher-performance materials.