Emcore (NASDAQ: EMKR), announced today that it has reached 37% peak efficiency on multi junction solar cells currently in volume production.

The company has also reached conversion efficiency of 31% for a new class of advanced thin multi-junction solar cells optimized for space applications, it says.

Emcore's terrestrial concentrator cell hits 37% peak conversion efficiency under concentrated illumination conditions, according to the company. The advance is an evolution of Emcore's Concentrator Triple Junction (CTJ) production technology with which several million CTJ solar cells have already been produced, the company said.

The company says it has a roadmap targeting the 40% efficiency of competitor Spectrolab (see Spectrolab solar cell breaks 40% efficiency barrier and Delta commercializing Spectrolab's high efficiency cells.)

The new space application cell, referred as an Inverted Metamorphic (IMM) design, is composed of a combination of compound semiconductors. The IMM cell is approximately one fifteenth the thickness of conventional multi-junction solar cells.

Developed in conjunction with the Vehicle Systems Directorate of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, the cell is to enable a new class of lightweight, high-efficiency, and flexible solar arrays to power a next generation of spacecraft and satellites.

"This new class IMM cell represents the most significant improvement in terms of watts/kg and $/watts in the past decade," said David Danzilio, VP and general manager of Emcore's photovoltaics division.

"Our industry leading scientists and engineers continue to refine and optimize our terrestrial concentrator products and production capabilities to meet our customers' needs and enable CPV systems to achieve the lowest cost of power."

To date, Emcore has delivered more than 1 million multi-junction solar cells for space applications and over 3 million CTJ cells for terrestrial applications.

The company says its terrestrial products will make possible cost competitive concentrating photovoltaic systems for use in utility scale solar power deployments.