What seemed like a slam dunk technological equation for RF Micro Devices in 2009 has suddenly become anything but in today's economic reality. The Greensboro chip-maker has shelved high-profile plans to use its advanced semiconductor fabrication facilities to also produce super-efficient solar cells.
Just over one year into RF's cooperative research agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the company announced that it had successfully fabricated a dual-junction cell. Their research was aimed at finding ways to use RF Micro's gallium arsenide chip-manufacturing facilities to lower the cost of producing photovoltaic chips based on technology developed by NREL scientists.
The research to increase the potential efficiency of a cell at converting sunlight into electricity was going extremely well, but then came the cold realities of cost. It soon became apparent that customers would not be willing to pay enough for the efficiency to cover the additional costs and still have a good business model.
As a result, RF Micro has stopped pursuing plans to produce the kinds of giant solar cells that could be sold to utility companies and hooked onto power grids. Business Journal contributing writer and Wake Forest University Journalism Department Director Justin Catanoso explains the path forward for RF Micro to WFDD's David Ford in this week's Business Report.
