News: Photovoltaics
16 July 2025
UbiQD and First Solar establish long-term quantum dot supply agreement
Nanotechnology firm UbiQD Inc of Los Alamos, NM, USA has entered into an exclusive, multi-year agreement to supply its proprietary fluorescent quantum dot (QD) technology to cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film photovoltaic (PV) module maker First Solar Inc of Tempe, AZ, USA. The agreement paves the way for the incorporation of QD technology into First Solar’s thin-film bifacial photovoltaic (PV) solar panels.
The supply agreement is expected to enable the early adoption of QD in thin-film modules, which has the potential for UbiQD to grow to over 100 metric tons of production per year. The two firms previously announced a joint development collaboration in 2023, the results of which have supported the new supply agreement and expanded R&D collaboration.
The US-based collaboration comes as the country aims to rapidly expand competitive power-generation capacity to serve demand from data centers, artificial intelligence (AI), and manufacturing.
“This is a turning point for the quantum dot industry with this first high-volume QD supply agreement outside of display,” notes UbiQD’s founder & CEO Hunter McDaniel PhD. “This partnership showcases how US innovation and manufacturing can deliver differentiated performance especially at a time when making breakthroughs in efficiency and materials is more vital than ever,” he adds. “First Solar has been an excellent partner, and together we've demonstrated not just performance benefits, but also the cost-effectiveness and scalability of our materials for solar spectrum optimization.”
UbiQD’s core proprietary quantum dot technology was originally developed at US-based research institutions Los Alamos National Laboratory and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). When incorporated into solar panel encapsulation, QDs can more than double the bifacial quantum efficiency of light conversion for specific wavelengths/colors — a critical edge as solar manufacturers compete globally on performance and price.
“At utility-scale, even incremental gains in bifaciality translate into significant real-world impact on energy yield,” notes First Solar’s chief technology officer Markus Gloeckler. “We're excited about the potential for quantum dot technology to contribute meaningful gains to the performance of our bifacial modules.”
This momentum follows UbiD’s $20m Series B round of fundraising announced in April, which in the coming year is enabling the firm’s plans over the next year to build one of the world’s highest-volume QD manufacturing facilities.
UbiQD expands collaboration with First Solar on quantum dot-enhanced solar modules
