thin film solar photovoltaic pv modules or solar panels based in ames iowa and is a provider of custom solar products for industrial consumer and military remote power applications . powerfilm s amorphous silicon a si thin film solar modules are both built into solar charger products as well as sold to oem integrators in a variety form factors . powerfilm inc. type public company lse pflm industry renewable energy founded 1988 as iowa thin film technologies inc. founder dr. frank jeffrey dr. derrick grimmer headquarters u.s. key people dr. frank jeffrey chairman ceo president linda borst cfo pat rundall vp operations brad scandrett vp engineering products solar panels revenue us 10 333 926 2012 net income us 701 802 2012 website www.powerfilmsolar.com footnotes references financials from powerfilm 2012 annual report 1 contents 1 technology 2 history 3 products 4 awards 5 references technology edit ceo frank jeffrey summarizes powerfilm technology for the podcast interview the naked scientists 2 the principal part of the solar cell itself in our cells is amorphous a silicon which has an extremely high absorption coefficient so that we can have extremely thin semiconducting material that will still absorb a good portion of light . that thin material even though if it were thick like a crystalline wafer it would break in the same type structure when it s thin enough becomes flexible and tends to bend rather than break . so that s the key part our basic absorber layer that absorbs the solar energy is only say 5 000 angstroms thick . so it s quite thin and flexible and we put it on a thin film plastic substrate that is also flexible and adds mechanical support and strength to the solar component . 3 materials used in thin film absorb more light than traditional silicon cells and therefore can be made much thinner than crystalline cells 1 vs. 200 micrometres 4 season 13 episode 1 4 2 15 of how it s made shows the manufacture of the powerfilm panels . history edit in 1983 thin film roll to roll solar cell research began at 3m . research physicists dr. frank jeffrey and dr. derrick grimmer left 3m and founded iowa thin film technologies which then engaged in a partnership with 3m and iowa state university . in 1988 iowa thin film technologies broke ties from 3m and the company began working in a department of energy lab in ames iowa . 5 the company s first thin film solar product was created in 1995 . in 1999 the company shipped thousands of solar panels due in large part to the y2k scare . this resulted in the company s first profitable year . 2005 3.2 m contract announced to develop solar tent structures for the u.s. army 6 2007 company goes public on the london stock exchange under the name powerfilm inc. ipo ticker symbol pflm 2008 manufacturing plant expanded by 80 000 sq ft to accommodate additional production capability 7 2010 japan launches ikaros . the japan aerospace exploration agency used powerfilm inc. photovoltaic thin film in the world s first solar sail powered deep space satellite . 8 2012 u.s. army makes 3m powerfilm foldable solar panel purchase 9 products edit oem thin film solar components foldable solar chargers rollable solar chargers military solar products usb solar chargers awards edit flexi award 10 prometheus 2010 technology company of the year 11 technology association of iowa clean tech company of the year 12 references edit powerfilm 2012 annual report http www.thenakedscientists.com html content interviews interview 1294 the naked scientists science radio & science podcasts march 2010 1 iowa state university january 2009 http www.powerfilmsolar.com about http www.isupark.org news events article.cfm articleid 496 2008 annual report http globaldocuments.morningstar.com documentlibrary document ded630f2979642ee.msdoc original http www.bloomberg.com news 2010 04 27 japan set to launch world s first solar sail powered satellite next month.html http www.powerfilmsolar.com about news 2 http www.flextech.org feb 3 2010 http www.siliconprairienews.com 2010 04 tai s prometheus awards highlight innovation throughout iowa http www.technologyiowa.org en media index.cfm action display & newsid 12252 official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title powerfilm & oldid 731522003 categories renewable energy companies of the united states navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 25 july 2016 at 22 01 . text is available under the creative commons 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