At Illuminex Corporation we are constantly advancing our capabilities at producing “Functional Nanomaterials” and designing new applications for the nanowire array based materials. The ability to manufacture these novel materials and exploit their properties is what drives the technology forward. The company’s capacity to make nanowire arrays from a large variety of materials on numerous substrate geometries provides a foundation with a world leading breadth of nanomaterials production capabilities. We strive to refine and develop our nanowire array processing techniques to make them amenable to the large scale manufacturing and industrial device production techniques that are necessary for the promise of nanotechnology to be realized.

Hand in hand with materials process development goes the work performed on novel device designs that employ Illuminex Functional Nanomaterials to achieve performance attributes not realized in conventional materials designs. New technologies with high performance attributes are under development utilizing techniques that bring costs down through the efficient and effective use of nanomaterials.

Currently, the company is focused on two product development areas based on our unique materials:

1. Photovoltaics (Solar Cells) for Sustainable Energy Generation

2. Lithium Ion Batteries for Superior Energy Storage needed for Electric Vehicles.

Illuminex Corporation Nanowire Photovoltaics

Illuminex Corporation is developing a novel photovoltaic device architecture based on nanotechnology: nanowire photovoltaics. Photovoltaics (or Solar Cells) are solid-state semiconductor devices that convert light into electricity. Solar cells are most commonly made out of crystalline silicon, a material widely used in many electronics and computer components. Illuminex has taken the silicon advantage of conventional solar cells, and re-engineered it using nanowires. The conversion of sunlight to electricity amounts to tapping into an endless energy resource that is extremely under-utilized. This clean, sustainable power source is abundant. The amount of solar energy reaching the earth's surface daily is approximately 10,000 times that of human energy consumption. The total amount of energy derived from fossil fuels since the dawn of civilization is equivalent to less than 30 days of sunshine. Presently, the worldwide photovoltaic market is in excess of $25 billion and growing at an annual rate of between 25% and 30%. It is expected to exceed $100 billion worldwide in 2013. However, this sustainable power source only represents a fraction of a percentage of electrical generation which is dominated by coal, nuclear and hydro-electric

Illuminex silicon nanowire array based photovoltaic is a lightweight, efficient, and affordable solar cell material that opens up new design possibilities for utilizing solar power. Conventional photovoltaics use silicon wafers that are rigid, heavy, and expensive. Illuminex has developed a breakthrough crystalline silicon nanowire processing technique that will enable the production of novel photovoltaic devices to be constructed in a variety of formats: from the surface of metallic threads for photovoltaic textile applications, on foils or applied layers for conformal fitting photovoltaic coatings, or simply on glass sheets which would compete head-to-head with the established and dominant Si wafer-based PV device market. The light collection efficiency of the nanowire photovoltaic rivals or exceeds that of textured crystalline devices. The array of nanowires acts as a wavelength independent light trap that will improve absorption of light across the entire solar band.

Illuminex novel process for producing crystalline silicon nanowire array based photovoltaic materials results in high efficiencies and low cost. This innovative process uses aluminum in a multi-functional capacity to enable large scale manufacturing of functional nanomaterials for sustainable energy applications. The essential design elements of the Illuminex nanowire photovoltaic material is presented in Figure 1.

The low cost is a result of using inexpensive precursor materials and minimal amounts of silicon. The Illuminex approach uses 1/100th the amount of silicon per square meter of solar material. There is a tremendous need to implement sustainable energy solutions, and the primary reason solar energy is not more widespread is the cost. Innovations in nanotechnology being developed at Illuminex provide opportunity for America to substantially advance the field of renewable energy while creating American jobs.

Illuminex Corporation Anode, Energy Storage for Future High Energy Density Batteries

Lithium ion batteries are currently the dominant rechargeable battery used in portable electronic devices such as cell phones and lap top computers, however, improvements, such as volumetric capacity, are needed to enable batteries for electric vehicles and supplemental energy storage for the grid. The performance of Lithium Ion Batteries, particularly the charge capacity, is limited by the anode of the device, which stores lithium ions when the battery is charged.

Silicon (Si) has a theoretical mass specific capacity of 4,200 mAh/gm, (in other words it will hold greater than 10X the charge of graphite anodes, the current standard), and therefore is very promising as a Lithium Ion Battery (LIB) anode material. Since Si has such high capacity, its volume expands as much as 400% as it absorbs and desorbs Li during charge–discharge cycles, resulting in strain related structural failures. However as a thin film, less than 300 nm thick, Si does not suffer from strain failure, and also exhibits high charge-discharge cycle life: however, a 300 nm film is too thin to provide the mass needed for high charge capacity LIB’s. Conflicting structure/mass requirements prevent broad implementation of Si for LIB anodes.

Illuminex innovative Copper-Silicon NanoComposite (CSNC) anode design, Figure 4, utilizes the companies established copper nanowire (CuNW) array as a high surface area substrate for the deposition of silicon, allowing significantly increased amount of Si to be deposited as a thin film, greatly increasing the mass per unit area. Depending on the CuNW array metrics, the nanowires can enhance a planar surface area by 50 to 300 fold. By depositing Si on the CuNW array such that it conforms to the nanowire structures, anodes with significantly more Si/cm2 can be produced: enabling anodes with high capacity and added structural integrity from the nanowire matrix. The nanowires will act in a manner similar to rebar in cement.