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News >> Technology >>
Raj Atluru's Konarka buys Siemens unit
By siliconindia
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Wednesday, 08 September 2004, 19:30 IST
LOWELL: Raj Atluru-led Konarka Technologies Inc. is acquiring competing expertise from Siemens AG for printing solar cells on flexible sheets of plastic.
The companies did not disclose financial terms of the transaction.
Siemens scientist Christoph Brabec becomes Konarka's director of polymer photovoltaic research. Thomas Grandke, head of the materials and microsystems department at Siemens' research organization, joins Konarka's scientific advisory board.
Dr. Srinivasan Balasubramanian and Dr Kethinni Chittibabu are the founding scientists.
In February Konarka said it won a $6 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to further develop its technology.
Last month, two California competitors said they also received DARPA funding -- Nanosolar Inc., which received $10.3 million, and Harvard University spinout Nanosys Inc., which garnered $2.2 million. The three companies beat out 100 other entities vying for the funding.
In July Konarka received $18 million in a third formal round of financing. Nanosolar also recently received significant amounts of funding from the California Energy Commission and the National Science Foundation, but did not disclose the amount. Nanosys recently suspended plans to make an initial public offering of stock.