Picsolar Inc, previously known as Silicon Solar Solutions LLC, develops a post-manufacturing hydrogen treatment to optimize the emitter of n-type solar cells resulting in improved conversion efficiency and reduced silver gridlines. The company's patent portfolio targets a major solar industry problem: the high cost of materials is limiting market adoption and manufacturers are seeking innovative methods to cut costs. The solution is to use less material and increase the power generated by solar cells. The technology created, commercialized as Picasolar, has shown 15% relative efficiency improvements while using one-third less silver grid lines in the lab. The high cost of materials is currently limiting market adoption and manufacturers are seeking innovative methods to cut costs. The solution to this problem is to use less material and increase the power generated by solar cells. The firmâs large grain polysilicon technology does exactly that and has applications in wafer-based and thin-film devices. The firm is currently commercializing a process to crystallize amorphous silicon into large grain polysilicon with unparalleled grain size and ease of processing. This process has resulted in 5 patents issued, with 3 additional patents pending and has created polysilicon grains 30x larger with less than 1/2 the processing temperature and in minutes instead of tens of hours.
