Solar thin film vendor DayStar Technologies (Nasdaq: DSTI) of Halfmoon, New York continues to take steps to restore itself to, as CEO Stephan DeLuca put it in a statement today, "sound financial footing."

In doing so, management must contend with the resignation of founder and chairman John R. Tuttle, who in late November of last year was replaced as CEO by DeLuca (see DayStar changes CEO.)

DayStar has been working for months to secure additional capital in order to remain a going concern. At its most recent - and first - conference call as a public company, DayStar articulated ambitious efficiency statistics for its pending third generation thin film material, but acknowledged financial difficulties.

Today, the company announced it had received approval from the Nasdaq to the company's request for an exemption to forgo a stockholder vote on the issuance of new securities in connection with a restructuring announced a few weeks ago (see DayStar gets commitments for additional capital.)

Because the number of shares of common stock issuable upon conversion of the recent note exceeded 20% of the company's outstanding common stock, shareholder approval would normally have been required, a step that would also have taken time and money that the company does not have right now.

DayStar is still seeking "substantial additional capital in order to fully develop, implement and commercialize our Gen III™ process," the company noted in a disclosure.

Late last Friday, after the close of the market, DayStar quietly disclosed that its founder John R. Tuttle had resigned "to pursue other opportunities", and had been removed as chairman of its board. Randall A. Graves, Jr., a member of DayStar's board since October 2003, replaced Tuttle.

The deposed Tuttle, who since November had been serving as chief development officer of DayStar, is to remain a member of the company's board until the next annual meeting of shareholders.

DayStar is a manufacturer of low cost, high efficiency thin film CIGS-based solar material. Branded Photovoltaic Foil™, its flexible metal material uses production processes adapted from computer component manufacturing.

As an alternative to wafer-silicon solar cells, DayStar believes the unique combination of its CIGS solar cell design coupled with proprietary manufacturing processes on flexible metal substrates could substantially lower costs and remove deployment barriers currently limiting large adoption of solar energy.

Shareholders seem pleased with the developments. Shares of DayStar are up 15% today to $3.00, a gain of $.41.

Read all of our coverage of DayStar here.