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Ambient Photonics -- Dye Sensitized Solar Cells  
 
Founded: Jan 2019
Status: Private
Source: Semiconductor Times, 6/22
ambientphotonics.com
100 Shoreline Highway, Suite B280
Mill Valley, CA 94941

Ambient Photonics was founded in 2019 “to bring low light energy harvesting technology to mass scale.” The technology was developed at the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry and funded since inception by Cthulhu Ventures. The company recently raised a $31 million Series A financing, led by Amazon via its Climate Pledge Fund and Ecosystem Integrity Fund (EIF), with Tony Fadell’s Future Shape and I Squared Capital participating. Ambient has 15 employees.

With this financing, Ambient will build the largest U.S.-based low-light solar cell production facility. The facility’s fully automated production line and capacity for tens of millions of units per year will enable Ambient to scale its low-cost, high-power density solar cells to mass market adoption. Ambient will also continue to progress its Part II application for a $162 million loan guarantee under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Title XVII Loan Guarantee Program.

Ambient’s low-light energy harvesting photovoltaic (PV) technology generates as much as 3X more power density compared to conventional indoor amorphous silicon solar cells by harvesting energy across the entire light spectrum, including both artificial and natural light. The technology is optimized for low-light, real-world conditions and delivers high power density under LED, fluorescent or diffuse sunlight. The performance is competitive with gallium arsenide, the highest performing low light solar technology, albeit extremely expensive.

Unlike high performance solar PV technologies, Ambient’s technology uses light-sensitive dyes to collect photons and convert them into electrons. The performance breakthrough began by reinventing the chemistry of the dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) with novel, proprietary molecules. The Ambient team has developed >40 organic sensitizer molecules used to create proprietary dyes tuned for low light conditions, which absorb light across the entire visible electromagnetic spectrum for the highest possible efficiencies. Ambient’s superior voltage also makes it possible to use a monolithic, single cell architecture.

High open circuit voltage of ~870 mV at 200 lux allows efficient use of a wide range of energy harvesting solutions while retaining a single cell architecture. The single-cell approach is more aesthetically pleasing and scales, unlike conventional amorphous silicon cells that use multi-cell modules that cut power output to zero if just one cell is shaded. The single cell approach also enables Ambient to deliver a flexible form factor.

Ambient cells can be optimized for the full range of indoor light sources including compact fluorescent (CFL), halogen, LED, incandescent and diffuse or shaded natural light. A novel industrial solar printing technology coats Ambient’s proprietary chemistry on thin, durable glass substrates, producing PV cells of virtually any size and shape.

Several global technology companies have developed DSSC technology platforms over the past couple of decades, including Sony, Ricoh, and Panasonic. Today, to the best of Ambient’s knowledge, only Fujikura (Japan) and Exeger (Sweden) still promote DSSC technology.

Ambient is scaling up to build its first factory, which will be operational in Q1’23. The production line will be capable of producing cells in custom sizes from under 3 cm2 to nearly 100 cm2 to meet customer requirements. The company has completed more than 10 proof of concept prototypes with high volume global IoT device manufacturers, including Universal Electronics Inc. (UEI) for handheld remotes. has secured master supply agreements and plans to be in high volume production in early 2023.

Bates Marshall, Co-founder and CEO (previously VP, GM for Huawei’s solar inverter business in North America and SVP, Global Sales and Marketing at Advanced Energy)

Kethinni Chittibabu, Ph.D., Co-founder & CTO (previously VP, R&D-Performance Materials at Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry, Sr. Director of R&D and Advisory Consultant at G24 Innovations and Co-founder and Principal Scientist at Konarka)

Glenn Gengel, COO (previously Senior Project Leader and VP of Manufacturing at SAGE Electrochromics / Saint Gobain)

Joshua Wright, VP of Engineering (previously Director Of Engineering at Blue Clover Devices and Advanced Product Development Lead Hardware Engineer at Fitbit)




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