Jul. 1--GREENSBORO -- RF Micro Devices will use much of the same technology it has now as it starts working to help produce a new generation of cells that convert sunlight into power, company officials said Wednesday.

"As big as the cell phone industry is today, it absolutely pales in comparison to the potential for renewable energy," said Robert Bruggeworth, president and CEO for RFMD.

The company has made its name producing components that prolong battery life and amplify signals for mobile phones out of Gallium Arsenide, a compound that Bruggeworth said has good properties for conveying and managing power.

As part of a deal signed Wednesday, RFMD will work with the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory to develop solar cells out of the same material.

The laboratory has designed a type of solar cell that can produce twice as much power from the same amount of sun light as solar cells that are on the market now.

"The next step is to get into the marketplace quickly," said Dan Arvizu, director of the laboratory. "The technology that was in our laboratories in the mid-70s is today's commercial product."

Such a decades-long turn around is too slow, Arvizu said. The country needs to add much more renewable energy sources to its portfolio quickly, he said.

That's where the partnership with RFMD comes in. The company is charged with figuring out how to produce the new type of solar chip on a scale big enough to supply the makers of solar arrays.

"We're trying to learn the recipe, if you will," said Bruggeworth. "They've been able to do it in a lab that's very controlled and you make one. We have to get it where you can make millions."

Because the new chips can do more energy conversion over a smaller area, Bruggeworth said they would help save money by allowing manufacturers to build smaller arrays.

He estimated it would take RFMD about two-and-half years to develop the process for producing the new type of solar cells commercially.

That work will be done at a factory across the street from its Greensboro headquarters. When the company is ready to begin production, that work could be done at any of its six manufacturing plants around the world.

"As we develop the market, there's no reason it couldn't be every bit as big as what we have today," Bruggeworth said.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com.

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