RED BANK, NEW JERSEY -- Natcore Technology Inc. (TSX VENTURE:NXT)(PINK SHEETS:NTCXF) has signed a letter of understanding to sell its first intelligent antireflective (AR) coating processing station to Hunan TLNZ Solar Technology Co. Ltd. (TLNZ) of Xiangtan, China.

Natcore believes its device will revolutionize the way that solar cells are made. It will replace the expensive and environmentally harmful chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method currently used by industry with a liquid phase deposition (LPD), or wet chemistry, process. Exclusively licensed from Rice University, the Natcore LPD process grows an AR coating on solar cells while reducing cost, environmental damage, and energy and raw material requirements.

Natcore began building its processing station on March 15. It is expected that completion of the first production phase will take eight to ten weeks. After extensive testing and adjustments, if necessary, the device will be shipped to TLNZ in China. The sale closing is contingent upon a successful test by TLNZ.

Late last year, Natcore sent several silicon wafers with AR coatings prepared by its researchers to TLNZ for finishing and testing. TLNZ analyzed the composition and quality of the Natcore-supplied films, added metal front and back contacts to the cells, and tested their efficiency. Cell efficiencies as high as 15% were measured for this first-ever test of Natcore's AR coating technology using actual production solar cells. Importantly, the standard deviation of efficiencies for the entire batch of cells was within normal industry acceptance limits. The results demonstrate that Natcore's LPD AR coating technology is completely compatible with standard silicon solar cell production methods and can be easily integrated into existing solar cell manufacturing facilities.

TLNZ also identified the process steps to be included in a commercial production system that would enable cells using Natcore's AR coating technology to routinely reach or exceed 17% efficiency in production.

Natcore is designing its processing station in a modular fashion. Every processing station will have the ability to monitor the coating process throughout and to accurately measure the thickness of the AR coating on a wafer while it is submerged in a chemical bath. Beyond that, however, some will be fully automated, for example, or able to automatically recharge the bath in which the cells are coated. Others will be able to alter the composition and duration of the bath in order to produce cells with greater simplicity and a high degree of precision.

"We have designed this product so we can add and subtract components based on the needs of our customers," says Natcore President and CEO Chuck Provini. "This means that we can build machines across a wide range of complexity, capabilities and price and accommodate the specific needs of individual manufacturers. Some solar cell producers will want the fully automated version whereas others may prefer a version that involves a more manual process, because of availability of inexpensive labor."

Hunan TLNZ Solar Technology Co., Ltd. is a high-tech solar energy enterprise with facilities covering 133,000 square meters and a total investment of 800 million Yuan (about US$122 million). The company has plans to expand from an initial production rate of 25MW to 200 MW. Located in the Photovoltaic Industry Park within the Xiangtan State High and New Technology Development Area, Hunan Province, it stands as the first enterprise of its kind in the park. TLNZ is situated in the center of Changsha, Zhuzhou and Xiangtan economic development circle. Natcore has formed a joint venture in Zhuzhou to build its intelligent AR coating processing stations. 

RED BANK, NEW JERSEY--(Marketwire - Aug. 9, 2011)

Natcore Technology Inc. (TSX VENTURE:NXT)(PINK SHEETS:NTCXF) has received delivery of its first intelligent processing station that uses an exclusive liquid phase deposition (LPD) process to grow antireflective (AR) coatings on silicon wafers. These wafers will be central components of solar cells.

Dubbed "AR-Box", the SUV–sized tool is being installed in Natcore's Research & Development Center at Kodak's Eastman Business Park in Rochester, NY. Natcore's President and CEO Chuck Provini, along with Mike Alt, the park's Director, and David Tennity, Kodak Project Manager, met with local contractors on Thursday to solicit bids for electrical, plumbing, and ductwork that will be required to make AR-Box functional. Installation and testing are scheduled for completion by September 9.

AR-Box is a totally enclosed system that contains a pre-clean subsystem; an LPD process subsystem incorporating Natcore's latest sizing and process control input; and a drying module. It has the ability to identify and eliminate unwanted invisible particles to assure uniformity, consistency, and a lack of contamination from suspended matter. It has a cooling and heating option that keeps the chemical bath within a range of ±0.5° C.

AR-Box will also include a module that passivates the surface of "black silicon" solar cells. Passivation will reduce the cell's average reflectivity to less than 1.5%, resulting in a significantly increased power output.

But perhaps the major feature of the device will be its ability to monitor the coating process throughout. Specifically, it will accurately measure the thickness of the AR coating on a wafer while it is submerged in a chemical bath, and can alter the composition and duration of the bath in order to produce solar cells with greater simplicity and a high degree of precision.

Natcore believes AR-Box will revolutionize the way solar cells are manufactured. Using its LPD process, AR-Box will replace the costly and hazardous chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method that is currently the industry standard. Cells produced in AR-Box will be less expensive and less environmentally harmful than conventional solar cells.

"AR-Box #1 will be used for our own R&D efforts," says Provini. "It will allow us to craft precise formulas for each customer. That's a necessity because solar cell production differs from plant to plant."

"We have received strong interest from companies in China, Italy, and the U.S. that could lead to production of four additional machines," Provini adds. "That would represent significant revenue for Natcore. We would profit from licensing fees, and from sales of the machines and the chemicals that will be used to recharge them. We hope to close at least two of these sales by the end of the year." 

RED BANK, NEW JERSEY--(Marketwire - Sept. 7, 2011) - A research team working under Natcore Technology Inc. (TSX VENTURE:NXT)(PINK SHEETS:NTCXF) co-founder Prof. Andrew Barron has fabricated two families of multilayer quantum dot films, one with silicon quantum dots and the other with germanium quantum dots, both of which have demonstrated the ability to produce a photo-generated current.

Achieved under the Natcore joint research agreement with Rice University, this advance has significant consequences for the thin-film solar cells that Natcore is developing in its Research Development Center at Kodak's Eastman Business Park in Rochester, NY. It could eliminate the need for a silicon wafer subcell, also accelerating Natcore's drive toward a low cost tandem solar cell.

Each film is comprised of layers of silicon or germanium quantum dots embedded in a silica matrix. The silica matrix is produced using the patented Liquid Phase Deposition (LPD) silica growth technology that Natcore has exclusively licensed from Rice University. Unlike preceding attempts to make such layers using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technology, Natcore's approach decouples quantum dot formation from the silica layer growth and allows for completely independent selection of quantum dot type, size and spacing in the silica layer.

The photo-generated current measurements are the first of their kind for this sort of structure and showed unequivocally that both film types (i.e., with Si quantum dots or Ge quantum dots) were photoactive in different spectral regions. The larger Ge quantum dots were responsive to an infrared-rich light source and the Si quantum dots were responsive to a UV-rich light source, consistent with expectations. Smaller quantum dots (the Si quantum dot diameters were between 1 nm and 2 nm) will respond more readily to shorter wavelengths of light, while larger quantum dots (the Ge quantum dot diameters were between 5 nm and 6 nm) will respond more readily to longer light wavelengths, precisely as observed.

"This accomplishment by Professor Barron and his group is an outstanding achievement and confirms that making, and ultimately commercially producing, an all-quantum dot tandem solar cell using Natcore's LPD film growth technology is on target," said Dr. Dennis Flood, Natcore's Chief Technology Officer. "Our goal to show that multiple layers of quantum dots can be assembled using a low-cost, complete wet chemistry approach has been validated. The fact that we have demonstrated photocurrent generation in both Si and Ge quantum dot multilayer devices means that the entire solar cell could potentially be fabricated without the use of expensive silicon wafers for the bottom subcell of a two- or three-cell tandem device. We could do so by substituting a Ge quantum dot device for the silicon solar cell and achieve the same overall solar absorption as would have been achieved with the latter. This achievement could make it possible to use low-cost, roll-to-roll manufacturing techniques to achieve a truly low-cost solar module that would have twice the power output of the average solar module on the market today." 

IMHO ...Eastman Kodak...5 years ago $25, today $3.12.  Could be time to frame a new picture down there in Rochester.

RED BANK, NEW JERSEY--(Marketwire - Sept. 14, 2011) - The U.S. Patent Office has awarded patent no. 7,999,176 B2 to Natcore Technology Inc. (TSX VENTURE:NXT)(PINK SHEETS:NTCXF) for a solar cell structure that uses carbon nanotubes to improve cell performance. Approved in April, this patent was issued on August 16.

This patent, and the three earlier foundational patents on which it is based, cover a liquid phase deposition (LPD) process for growing inorganic films on silicon. One of these earlier patents is at the heart of Natcore's businesses, particularly in the photovoltaic area.

The patent abstract reads as follows:

"Improved photovoltaic devices and methods are disclosed. In one embodiment, an exemplary photovoltaic device includes a semiconductor layer and a light-responsive layer (which can be made, for example, of a semiconductor material) which form a junction, such as a p-n junction. The light-responsive layer can include a plurality of carbon nanostructures, such as carbon nanotubes, located therein. In many cases, the carbon nanostructures can provide a conductive pathway within the light-responsive layer. In other embodiments, exemplary photovoltaic devices include semiconductor nanostructures, which can take a variety of forms, in addition to the carbon nanostructures. Further embodiments include a wide variety of other configurations and features. Methods of fabricating photovoltaic devices are also disclosed."

Natcore plans to continue development work on thin-film solar cells at its Research and Development Center, located in Kodak's Eastman Business Park, Rochester, NY. There it will have access to roll-to-roll manufacturing machinery formerly used to produce Eastman Kodak's photo film.

Chuck Provini, Natcore's President and CEO, says, "This patent, together with our recent success with an all-quantum-dot tandem solar cell, demonstrates that Natcore has taken a quantum leap forward in our push for high-efficiency thin-film solar cells. They are critical components in our program that aims to double the efficiency of solar cells and to halve their cost."

The patent was assigned to Vanguard Solar, which was acquired by Natcore Technology in March 2010. Thus Natcore now solely owns the patent, along with Vanguard's other intellectual property. This U.S. patent award provides Natcore with intellectual property protection for its nanostructured solar cells in the world's largest and most important markets.  

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patents pacify patrons patience....