On Wednesday the 3rd of November, MicroLink Devices UK held the official opening of their new research facility in Baglan Bay Innovation Centre. The event was well attended, with representatives of Airbus, CS Connected, CSA Catapult, Cardiff University, IQE, Rockley Photonics and Voltitude.

The event gave an overview of the leading-edge solar cell technology that will soon be manufactured by MicroLink in Wales, and the exciting opportunities in solar-electric aircraft, space, and sensing markets MicroLink Devices UK is targeting.

In addition, the High-Density Aerospace Solar Power project backed by the Aerospace Technology Institute, was officially announced. HiDASP is a 30-month, £6.4M, project to enable a Mega-watt scale manufacturing facility in South Wales. The HiDASP consortium includes world renown wafer manufacturer IQE, and the Centre for Integrative Semiconductor Materials at Swansea University.

The event allowed attendees to see and hold the world leading low-mass, high-efficiency, flexible solar cells and engage with our engineers to gain a greater insight into the technology. The attendees saw the various uses of MicroLink’s solar cells and an insight into the exciting future markets.

The first pre-production unit of LUSS (LED based Ultra-Violet exposure for Safe Surfaces) project was also present, which guests could interact with. LUSS is an automatic door cleaning device exploiting nanometre wavelength light optimised to kill COVID19, influenza, hepatitis, and bacteria, preventing the spread of infection in high traffic areas in medical facilities. With each use of the door, the doorhandle is automatically disinfected, radically reducing transmission rates and the need for frequent manual cleaning.