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Perovskite Si bicycle-built-for-two solar cell applied science is a mouthful , but it ’s basically perovskite crystallization layered on top of silicon cellular telephone . The combination captures energy from the Dominicus more efficiently than traditional silicon cadre , creating powerful solar panels . That sounds simple enough , but designing an effective perovskite atomic number 14 tandem bicycle solar jail cell is n’t easy because of its multi - layer architecture . A Singapore - based ship’s company calledCosmos Innovationis piddle the process more effective by using AI to optimize the aim of perovskite Si tandem solar jail cell and is using its tech to build a self - learning fab .
Cosmos exited stealth today with $ 19.7 million in total funding , include a seed round of $ 2.88 million raised in 2020 and a Series A of $ 16.8 million from sooner this year . Its Series A was head by Xora Innovation , the other - stage thick technical school investment chopine of Temasek . Participants included Innovation Endeavors , the venture house co - founded by Eric Schmidt ; Two Sigma Ventures ; DeepMind chief executive officer Demis Hassabis ; MIT prof Tomaso Poggio ; instinctive language processing researcher , You.com CEO and AIX Ventures managing partner Richard Socher ; and Western Technology Investments .
Cosmos trust on Mobius , its AI recipe optimisation platform , to accelerate the development of its solar cell . Created by Cosmos , Mobius has been used in sector including solar , silicon carbide , innovative data center chips and modern packaging . It is key to Cosmos ’ ambition to make the world ’s first self - learning fab in the solar and semiconductor unit space . Instead of manual , trial - and - mistake based processes , Mobius uses AI to speed up the experimental design , trial and iteration loop of semiconductors .
The startup was founded in 2020 by CEO Vijay Chandrasekhar and CTO Joel Li . Before Cosmos , Chandrasekhar led an AI effort at the Institute for Infocomm Research , part of the Agency of Science , Technology and Research ( ASTAR ) , where he supervise 150 people and managed a portfolio of AI projects with a focus on semiconductors . Li was former group head at the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore and serve as an AI team lead at ASTAR , leading the development of AI solution for manufacturers and R&D institutes . The two met while at A*STAR .
When asked to explain perovskite atomic number 14 tandem solar cellphone engineering in layperson ’s terms , Chandrasekhar and Li said that it replaces conventional solar cells currently on the market . Conventional solar cadre apply Si to assimilate lighting . When layered on top of silicon , perovskite , a crystal that occurs in nature or is manmade , captures different parts of the solar spectrum . That makes it more effective than conventional solar mobile phone .
“ The big , big , big market opportunity is because silicon engineering science is reaching its primal terminus ad quem , ” said Chandrasekhar . “ There ’s a big trillion - dollar chance going into the 2030s and we wanted to drive the next S bend in solar , which is perovskite silicon tandem . ”
Some of the challenge researchers have to resolve before perovskite silicon tandem solar cell tech can be commercialise include stability and scaling up the engineering , says Li .
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There are three main grocery segments for perovskite silicon tandem solar mobile phone tech . The first are residential rooftop board . Then there ’s commercial and industrial , or control panel placed on top of facility and warehouses . The third one is power plant that generate electrical energy and feed it into the grid . Cosmos ’ founders say one of the advantages of perovskite silicon bicycle-built-for-two solar cell tech is that it takes less space , since it is more efficient .
“ Every bit of efficiency is going to move the acerate leaf massively on the amount of electricity you may generate , ” said Chandrasekhar . “ Perovskite atomic number 14 tandem is disruptive to silicon in these area - tighten diligence . ”
Perovskite atomic number 14 tandem tech ’s multi - layer computer architecture means it is more hard to plan , with many unlike variation . As a result , researchers need to drop a lot of clock time calculate out the best recipe for peak cell efficiency and stableness . Mobius is meant to take a bunch of the guesswork out of this process and make it less labor - intensive to make cost - effective and high-pitched - efficiency solar prison cell by figuring out the right combination of material , process and architecture .
The caller exact it has already seen a 10x acceleration in appendage recipes , along with betterment in prey public presentation with top semiconductor companies . Cosmos worked on 10 different problems with leading semiconducting material and solar caller ( their name ca n’t be give away ) and Li say “ we ’ve shown time and fourth dimension again our AI engineering can accelerate mental process optimisation . ” It ’s been used on applications like solar silicone carbide , front - end transistor and chiplets .
Chandrasekhar says Mobius is Cosmos ’ key to setting itself aside from competitors in the perovskite Si tandem outer space , like Oxford PV and CubicPV , which is backed by Bill Gates ’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures .
“ At this gunpoint , there is an arms race to build up this technology . This is the single most disruptive switch in solar since the first silicon solar cell was formulate in Bell Labs 50 years ago , ” he say . “ There ’s an arms race and big program shift , which enable new startups like us to enter the subspecies . There ’s a group of perovskite atomic number 14 tandem startups and of course the big officeholder are also looking into it . ” But Chandrasekhar added that Cosmos ’ advantage is that the company lead off as an AI company and then decide to work up next - coevals semiconductors .
Cosmos ’ funding is being used to accelerate its R&D cognitive operation . Its go - to - marketplace strategy focuses on its initial pilot customers and the premium terminal of the mart , including area - constrained applications . It is presently building former epitome . Cosmos is also working on its self - learning fab , which Chandrasekhar describes as Mobius layered on top of computer hardware , and is already operate in Singapore .
In a quote about the investment funds , Xora Innovation handle director Phil Inagaki said , “ Cosmos Innovation has gather some of the world ’s conduct judgment in AI , semiconductor manufacturing and solar to make Mobius — the first AI platform that enables self - learning fabrication of complex atomic number 14 devices . The software of Mobius to perovskite silicon tandem solar cells forebode to deliver more cost - effective , reliable and effective modules on an accelerated timeline . ”
