Coherent Inc. and SiOnyx Inc. announced they will partner to evaluate and develop SiOnyx's black silicon material for solar applications. Black silicon offers a number of advantages for the solar industry, including reduction of cost, an increase in conversion efficiencies and improvements in manufacturing yields, the companies said. “With this collaboration, we look forward to demonstrating the scalability of our process beyond the initial applications of photodetection and imaging and exploit the compelling benefits of black silicon’s enhanced quantum efficiency in the solar industry,” said Stephen Saylor, president and CEO of Beverly, Mass.-based SiOnyx, a spinoff business of Harvard University. (See: Harvard Spinoff Company Takes on $200 Billion Global Market for Silicon) The partnership is expected to position both companies to capture new opportunities in the photovoltaic industry. For more information, visit: www.coherent.com