Silicon nanowire solutions supplier Bandgap Engineering of Woburn, Mass., has secured two patents that represent breakthroughs in solar energy conversion efficiency and cost. Titled “Designing the host of nano-structured optoelectronic devices to improve performance,” US Patent No. 7,973,995 covers technology to improve the performance of solar cells by placing scattering centers in volume around the nanomaterials. The composite that results absorbs more of the incident light for energy conversion. The company also secured related US patent No. 7,893,512, which exploits nanowire and matrix interfaces. It nanoengineers the band structure of silicon to optimize it for solar energy conversion.