Perovskite application developers

Imec is a leading independent nanoelectronics and digital technologies R&D hub with headquarters in Belgium.

Imec leverages its state-of-the-art R&D infrastructure and its team of more than 5,500 employees and researchers for advanced semiconductor R&D activities, also including system scaling, silicon photonics, artificial intelligence, beyond 5G communications and sensing technologies. 

Imec is involved in perovskite R&D, with work on perovskite LEDs, solar panelks and more. It is also a partner in Solliance. 

KEP Technologies is a family-owned international industrial group that offers its customers and partners the implementation of industrial and technological solutions. It develops the 3 vectors that distinguish the Group: Innovation, International Presence and Diversification.

KEP Technologies uses processes for manufacturing perovskites in crystalline form, with the properties required for the detection and characterization of radioactive materials. Under its SETSAFE brand, KEP Technologies is developing nuclear measurement solutions that take advantage of the unique properties of perovskites. Knowledge and control of the synthesis of these materials benefit from more than 10 years’ experience and research at EPFL in Prof. Forró’s group. 

Depending on their design and performance, devices based on perovskite technology can detect radioactive sources for defense purposes, or to protect the public against nuclear and radiological risks. Their ability to detect and even identify radioactive isotopes also opens up prospects in the fields of industrial nuclear safety and medical applications.

NexWafe is Germany-based wafer manufacturer that was spun out from Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in 2015 and is a member of the Ultra Low-Carbon Solar Alliance, Solar Power Europe, and the European Solar Manufacturing Council.

It designs, develops and is ramping into production a proprietary process to produce ultra-thin, high-efficiency, monocrystalline, low-carbon footprint solar wafers to make photovoltaics more sustainable and efficient. Fully compatible with conventional solar cell manufacturing, NexWafe offers a 40% reduction in energy consumption during manufacturing. NexWafe’s continuous, direct gas-to-wafer manufacturing process also minimizes waste, resulting in wafers that are less expensive than conventional wafers. NexWafe’s in-line, ultra-scalable process leapfrogs current barriers in the cost reduction roadmap and inherently supports the industry’s extraordinary growth as the transition to solar power accelerates worldwide. 

The University of Birmingham has partnered with global miner Anglo American and venture-builder Cambridge Future Tech to launch PeroCycle, a company aimed at developing and commercializing carbon recycling technology for implementation in steelmaking.

PeroCycle will build upon innovations made at the University of Birmingham’s School of Chemical Engineering by Professor Yulong Ding and Dr. Harriet Kildahl, who pioneered an in-process carbon recycling method with the use of a double perovskite material. The use of the material enables the in-process splitting of carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide at considerably lower temperatures than current methods.

The carbon monoxide could then be recycled in a closed loop as a substitute for coal or coke currently used in the steelmaking process, in turn significantly reducing the volume of carbon dioxide emissions. Cambridge Future Tech, working with Anglo American, will lead the spin-out and development of PeroCycle, de-risking its path to commercial applications.