Nanosys Awarded Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant for Nanocomposite Photovoltaic Technology Development

Palo Alto, CA - (June 30, 2003). Nanosys Incorporated announced today the award of Phase 1 of a potential $850K SBIR grant from the National Science Foundation to the company. The SBIR program is sponsored by the Small Business Administration and is designed to stimulate technological innovation and commercialization by small businesses.

The grant from the National Science Foundation was awarded to further Nanosys’s development and commercialization of their novel nanocomposite solar cell technology that combines self-assembled inorganic semiconductor nanocrystals into a plastic composite to produce lightweight, flexible solar cells of almost any size and shape. This revolutionary solar technology will provide electricity with efficiencies surpassing those of traditional thin-film solar cells, but at a cost substantially below that of the other technologies available today.

The concept of nanocomposite solar cells using inorganic semiconductor nanocrystals was originally pioneered by Professor Paul Alivisatos, scientific founder of Nanosys, and Dr. Erik Scher, Research and Development Scientist at Nanosys, and Principal Investigator on this SBIR grant. The nanocomposite photovoltaic system combines the solar conversion efficiency, conductive properties and environmental stability of inorganic semiconductor materials with the lightweight, flexibility, processability and low-cost of plastics, to produce a conformal lightweight commercial photovoltaic technology. The system can be fabricated using low-cost roll-to-roll processing techniques to produce standalone solar sheets in large-volumes or it can be directly laminated onto other surfaces, such as those of traditional roofing tiles. The technology will not only excel in traditional photovoltaic applications such as portable power, on-grid power production and satellite power, but also enable next generation photovoltaics that are seamlessly integrated into structural surfaces such as buildings.

“Solar is a big opportunity for nanotechnology, and NSF is very selective about their grant awards to corporations,” commented Director of Business Development and Co-Founder of Nanosys, Dr. Stephen Empedocles. “This award is a stamp-of-approval by one of the Nation’s most prestigious technology institutions, and acknowledges both the commercial value, as well as the scientific importance, of the work going on at Nanosys.”

In addition to securing worldwide, exclusive rights to the nanocomposite solar technology and materials developed in the labs of Dr. Paul Alivisatos at the University of California, Berkeley, Nanosys recently announced its first major corporate partnership with Matsushita Electric Works for commercialization of this novel solar technology in the Asian building materials market. In addition, Nanosys is currently in active discussions with multiple companies for co-development of other commercial sectors.

Research and Development Scientist and Principal Investigator, Dr. Erik Scher, said: “We are really excited by this award. The ability to produce solar cells that are higher efficiency, cheaper, lighter weight and conformal will make solar energy competitive with traditional forms of electricity. Our unique technology allows us to separate the functional properties of a material from its processing properties, allowing us to fabricate a material that has the performance of a traditional inorganic solar cell, but processes like a plastic. In addition to great technology, we also have a top-tier multidisciplinary team to bring this technology to market.”

About Dr. Scher

Dr. Scher is an R&D Scientist at Nanosys, Inc. He earned a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at UC Berkeley in 2002 working with nanotechnology luminary and Nanosys scientific founder Dr. Paul Alivisatos, and has 5 years experience in nanomaterials synthesis, characterization, and device fabrication. Dr. Scher is recognized as one of the world's leaders in nanocrystal synthesis and shape control, with numerous publications in leading scientific journals, including Science and Nature, and multiple patent applications in the field of nanomaterials and nanotechnology.

About Nanosys

Nanosys, Inc, is a rapidly growing advanced technology company, leading the burgeoning nanotechnology industry, through the development of nano-enabled systems. These systems incorporate novel and patent-protected nanostructures that integrate functional complexity directly into each individual nanoparticle, enabling the low-cost fabrication of revolutionary high-value, high-performance applications in a broad range of industries from life and physical sciences to information technology and communications to renewable energy and defense. These nanostructures include nanowires, nanorods, nanotetrapods and nanodots formed from all of the industrially important semiconductor materials (Group II-VI, III-V and IV) as their principal active elements. These systems exploit the fundamentally new and unique electronic, optical, magnetic, interface and integration properties associated with materials on the nanometer-scale. The initial applications include exquisitely sensitive chemical and biological sensors, high performance large area macroelectronics and lightweight high efficiency conformal photovoltaics.

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