Spire Semiconductor, a subsidiary of Spire Corporation, is to offer a contract design and manufacturing service to manufacturers of solar concentrator cells at its 50,000 square foot facility in Hudson, New Hampshire. Under its ‘Captive Custom Capacity’ initiative, Spire Semiconductor will leverage its production experience in gallium arsenide (GaAs) solar cells, wafer epitaxy and other thin film products and has an expandable capacity of 50MW per annum.

“We want manufacturers and system integrators to know that they have a strong partner in Spire Semiconductor,” said Roger G. Little, Spire’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “That’s why we developed this Captive Custom Capacity initiative that leverages our decades of experience and state-of-the-art facilities. We now can offer our partners the benefits of an optimized design and manufacturing process with the potential for large-scale contract production based on their individual needs.”

“Our extensive MOCVD experience and capabilities enable us to grow a wide variety of GaAs and InP epitaxial structures,” said Edward D. Gagnon, General Manager of Spire Semiconductor. “Throughout our history, we’ve recognized that time-to-market is critical to our customers’ success and with this new initiative, we have committed to providing the fastest turnaround times possible. With decades of experience in the field, our epitaxy engineers work closely with customers to assure that every wafer meets their expectations.”

Spire Semiconductor will offer prototype development to full production that also includes photolithographic processing of III-V cell structures and deposition of broadband, dual-layer AR coatings.