[By NBC-1TV H. J Yook]Intermolecular, Inc. (Nasdaq:IMI) and First Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq:FSLR) today announced they have entered into a two-year collaboration and licensing agreement focused on further increases to the conversion efficiency of First Solar‘s cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cell technology. Under the new collaborative development program, First Solar and Intermolecular researchers will work together to develop disruptive new approaches to increasing the performance of CdTe solar cell technology using Intermolecular’s proprietary High Productivity Combinatorial (HPC™) platform. The program targets substantial gains in First Solar's module conversion efficiency beyond its previously announced roadmap.

“We are excited to extend and deepen our collaboration with IMI. The combinatorial approach to material and process screening has shown promise to augment First Solar‘s already world-leading research and development capabilities in CdTe solar technology, enabling better performance and faster time-to-market,” said Raffi Garabedian, First Solar’s Chief Technology Officer. “This program targets disruptive advances in our module performance which will be additive to our current roadmap. We are confident this effort will bear fruit in the coming years, combining with our other new R&D advances to extend our leadership in photovoltaic technology and further enhance value for our power plant customers.”

Sandeep Nijhawan, Vice President and General Manager of Intermolecular's Clean Energy Group, noted, “We are excited to partner with First Solar, a global leader in thin-film photovoltaic technology and systems. Extending and expanding the collaboration with First Solar after working closely with them last year represents tremendous validation of our value proposition. We look forward to be closely working with First Solar to further increase CdTe solar cell conversion-efficiency by leveraging our HPC platform and capabilities.”