In May 2010 the United States National Science Foundation sponsored a two-day workshop to review the state-of-the-art and research challenges in photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing. This article summarizes the major conclusions and outcomes from this workshop, which was focused on identifying the science that needs to be done to help accelerate PV manufacturing. A significant portion of the article focuses on assessing the current status of and future opportunities in the major PV manufacturing technologies. These are solar cells based on crystalline silicon (c-Si), thin films of cadmium telluride (CdTe), thin films of copper indium gallium diselenide, and thin films of hydrogenated amorphous and nanocrystalline silicon. Current trends indicate that the cost per watt of c-Si and CdTe solar cells are being reduced to levels beyond the constraints commonly associated with these technologies. With a focus on TW/yr production capacity, the issue of material availability is discussed along with the emerging technologies of dye-sensitized solar cells and organic photovoltaics that are potentially less constrained by elemental abundance. Lastly, recommendations are made for research investment, with an emphasis on those areas that are expected to have cross-cutting impact.

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Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) have recently been incorporated into consumer displays and lighting technologies. Now that these materials are being produced on industrial scales, it is important to investigate scalable synthetic methods and less toxic materials and chemistries. To achieve these goals, we have synthesized cadmium-free, visible light-emitting QDs using a microwave-assisted continuous flow reactor. After synthesis, the CuInS 2 QD cores underwent a near-complete Zn cation exchange reaction in a batch reactor, followed by the growth of a ZnS shell. Analysis of X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy data indicate that the crystal structure changes from CuInS 2 (chalcopyrite) to ZnS (zincblende) during the cation exchange reaction. Compositional analysis indicated that the core/shell QDs were *98 % ZnS, with Cu and In present at much lower concentrations. The photoluminescence (PL) peak position was blue shifted for longer cation exchange reactions, and it was found that the ZnS shell was necessary for improved PL stability.The synthesized QDs have a PL down conversion efficiency of *65 % when using a blue LED source.

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Complementary symmetry (CS) Boolean logic utilizes both p- and n-type field-effect transistors (FETs) so that an input logic voltage signal will turn one or more p- or n-type FETs on, while turning an equal number of n- or p-type FETs off. The voltage powering the circuit is prevented from having a direct pathway to ground, making the circuit energy efficient. CS circuits are thus attractive for nanowire logic, although they are challenging to implement. CS logic requires a relatively large number of FETs per logic gate, the output logic levels must be fully restored to the input logic voltage level, and the logic gates must exhibit high gain and robust noise margins. We report on CS logic circuits constructed from arrays of 16 nm wide silicon nanowires. Gates up to a complexity of an XOR gate (6 p-FETs and 6 n-FETs) containing multiple nanowires per transistor exhibit signal restoration and can drive other logic gates, implying that large scale logic can be implemented using nanowires. In silico modeling of CS inverters, using experimentally derived look-up tables of individual FET properties, is utilized to provide feedback for optimizing the device fabrication process. Based upon this feedback, CS inverters with a gain approaching 50 and robust noise margins are demonstrated. Single nanowire-based logic gates are also demonstrated, but are found to exhibit significant device-to-device fluctuations.

Quantum dots are showing commercial promise for achieving wide color gamuts in LCD displays when used to generate the red and green portions of the spectrum. To date these have been incorporated using a separate optical element or a largearea film. We instead describe a drop-in, on-chip solution to QD-based BLUs.