mPower Signs Licensing Agreement With Sandia

A licensing agreement between solar start-up company mPower Technology Inc. and Sandia National Laboratories has been signed for “home grown” solar collection technology using microsystem-enabled photovoltaics (MEPV).

"This is an important milestone," said Murat Okandan, founder and CEO of mPower, as well as a former Sandia scientist. "It is an extremely exciting time in the solar industry with the upcoming critical, rapid change in the worldwide energy infrastructure. A lot of things are coming together and we're excited to be part of it."

MEPV uses micro-design and micro-fabrication techniques to make miniature solar cells, also known as "solar glitter." mPower is commercializing MEPV as Dragon SCALEs, small, lightweight, flexible solar cells that fit into and power devices or sensors of any shape or size, including wearable ones. The high-efficiency cells can be integrated into satellites and drones, biomedical and consumer electronics, and can be folded like paper for easy transport.

"There is other MEPV intellectual property useful for other applications and using other materials," said Bob Westervelt, Sandia licensing specialist. "That is still available for licensing."

mPower used an exclusive license option on the MEPV technology in its initial product development and decided in October to convert it to a full commercial license that lets the company move to the next stage of its commercialization plan. The mPower license applies to a portion of Sandia's MEPV intellectual property portfolio associated with silicon solar cells.

Mary Monson, Sandia's senior manager of industry partnerships, said companies like mPower take the laboratory’s technology and further develop it so it can be manufactured for widespread use in the energy and defense sectors.

"Sandia's partnerships with industry play an integral role in our mission success," she said.

A federally funded research and development center, Sandia National Laboratories is a contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration, supporting numerous federal, state and local government agencies and organizations.