GPEC Research Agreement to Include Organic Solar Cells

Global Photonic Energy Corp. (GPEC) of Ewing, N.J., a developer of sustainable organic photovoltaic (OPV) technology to enable ultralow-cost solar power generation, announced that it has signed agreements with the University of Southern California (USC), the University of Michigan and Princeton University to provide funding for photonic energy conversion technologies developed under the guidance of professors Stephen R. Forrest and Mark E. Thompson at their respective universities. The amount of the funding was not disclosed. The new agreements follow Forrest's move to the University of Michigan in January as vice president for research and professor of electrical engineering & computer science, physics and materials science & engineering. Thompson is chemistry department chair and a professor of chemistry at USC. Patents derived from the research program will continue to be licensed exclusively to GPEC. The company said it has been developing its OPV technology -- flexible, organic semiconductors that can be used in flexible applications -- through university-sponsored research since 1994.