What is the relationship with Hokkaido Semiconductor?
YT: It is a subsidiary of Kyoto Semiconductor – a factory located in Kamisuganawa which manufactures LEDs and photodiodes. The microgravity utilization center is in Eniwa city. BB: How has the solar (and semiconductor) industry changed since the beginning of your career? Has the technology become more efficient? YT: The efficiency is related to the physical properties of the particular cell used. Depending on whether you are studying single crystalline silicon, amorphous silicon, or polycrystalline silicon, the efficiency of energy conversion is different. BB: When was Sphelar first developed? YT: Kyoto Semiconductor was founded in 1980. Founder and CEO Josuke Nakata began developing an idea for a spherical solar cell in 1993 when he was in the Kamisunagawa district in Hokkaido. Sphelar is the first spherical single crystalline semiconductor to be grown under micro-gravity conditions, and it has an energy-conversion efficiency of close to 20% in the laboratory. At the time Nakata was c
