Spire Corporation engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of engineered products and services in four principal business areas: solar equipment, solar systems, biomedical and optoelectronics in the United States.
In some cases, such as IONGUARD processing of orthopedic devices, commercial services are well established, while in other cases, commercialization is just beginning.
Solar Equipment
In the solar equipment area, the company develops, manufactures, and markets specialized equipment for the production of terrestrial photovoltaic modules from solar cells. The Company's equipment has been installed in approximately 170 factories in 43 countries.
Solar photovoltaics, the direct conversion of sunlight into electricity, are an important source of distributed power that can be employed locally or connected to a power grid. The Company's individual items of manufacturing equipment and its SPI-LINE integrated turnkey wafer, cell, and module production lines are designed to meet the needs of various customers ranging from small manufactures relying on mostly manual processes to the major photovoltaic manufacturing companies in the world.
Spire equipment spans the process for fabricating photovoltaic modules including: Sorting solar cells into performance groups (groups at load voltage); Assembling and soldering strings of cells interconnected with metal ribbons or ‘tabs'; Completing the module circuit by soldering bus ribbons to connect the strings together; Cutting polymer, fiberglass, and back cover to length and assembling them with the glass and module circuit in preparation for encapsulation; Laminating the module assembly and curing the encapsulating polymer; Final assembly, including edge trimming, installing an edge gasket and frame, and attaching a junction box; Performing a high voltage isolation test to guarantee voltage isolation between the cell circuit and the module frame; and Electrically testing the module performance by measuring a current-voltage curve under simulated sunlight.
The fabrication of photovoltaic modules uses solar cells and module materials as input and produces functional PV modules, ready for use. The Company provides the necessary equipment and training for implementing these process steps as individual equipment items and as integrated production lines.
Spire Solar Systems
In the solar systems area, the company provides custom and building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) modules, emergency power back up and electric power grid-connected distributed power generation systems employing photovoltaic technology developed by the company.
The Company continues to pursue the PV system product line through its Bedford, Chicago and Florida operations primarily focused on the building integrated photovoltaic market.
Spire Biomedical
In the biomedical area, the company provides value-added surface treatments to manufacturers of orthopedic and other medical devices that enhance the durability, antimicrobial characteristics or other material characteristics of their products; develops and markets hemodialysis catheters and related devices for the treatment of chronic kidney disease and performs sponsored research programs into practical applications of advanced biomedical and biophotonic technologies.
Spire Biomedical is both a manufacturer of medical devices and provides advanced medical device surface treatment processes. Spire Biomedical's medical device business develops, manufactures, and sells premium products for vascular access in chronic kidney disease patients. Spire Biomedical's surface treatment business modifies the surfaces of medical devices to improve their performance.
Spire Biomedical's line of long-term hemodialysis catheters is defined to combine level performance with increased catheter placement options. The Company's proprietary catheter products provide higher flow at lower pressures and superior kink-resistance. Its patented separated distal tip design minimizes recirculation and provides a margin of functionality compared to conventional staggered tip designs.
The Company offers its medical customers a family of process services utilizing ion beam technologies to enhance both the surface characteristics and the performance of medical devices. The Company's advanced surface modification technology services employ proprietary Ion Implantation and Ion Beam Assisted Deposition (IBAD) techniques to improve the performance of medical components. The Company's customized surface treatments meet a variety of needs, including reduced friction, wear and abrasion, infection resistance, enhanced tissue and bone growth, increased thromboresistance, conductivity, improved radiopacity and the improvement of other performance characteristics. Spire-treated products include orthopedic prostheses (such as replacement hips, knees, elbows), catheters, guidewires, ear-nose-throat devices, vascular grafts, and other specialty medical devices.
Bandwidth Semiconductor, LLC (Bandwidth Semiconductor)
In the optoelectronics area, the company provides custom compound semiconductor foundry and fabrication services on a merchant basis to customers involved in biomedical/biophotonics instruments, telecommunications and defense applications. Services include compound semiconductor wafer growth, other thin film processes and related device processing and fabrication services. The Company also provides materials testing services and performs services in support of sponsored research into practical applications of optoelectronic technologies.
The Company's optoelectronics business segment operates in a semiconductor foundry and fabrication facility in Hudson, New Hampshire equipped with the most advanced and metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and fabrication equipment. The Company's fabrication facility has been designed to have the flexibility to engage in quick-turn research and prototyping as well as for economical full-rate volume production services in three primary areas: MOCVD epitaxial wafers, device foundry services, and thin film circuits.
The Company's MOCVD epitaxial wafer services include various compound semiconductor (chiefly gallium arsenide and indium phosphide-based compounds) epitaxial structures fabricated to its customers' designs or in some cases to its own designs.
Bandwidth Semiconductor has a number of standard structures available to meet many device needs and speed prototype development. The Company's epitaxial engineers work closely with customers to develop and improve proprietary structures for specific applications. Typical applications include: Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSEL), optical waveguides, high power edge emitting lasers, photocathodes, high electron mobility transistors (HEMT), field effect transistors (FET), PIN photodetectors, avalanche photo-detectors (APD) and other gallium arsenide-on-silicon, lattice mismatched indium gallium arsenide photodetectors, strained quantum well and other compound semiconductor material structures.
Typical OEM devices, the company has fabricated include single-element photodetectors, photodetector arrays, VCSELs, edge-emitting lasers, thermo-photovoltaic (TPV) cells and communications-quality light emitting diodes (LED).
The Company's thin film circuit services include the fabrication of custom structures, chip resistors and resistor arrays to customer orders using thin film technology on alumina ceramic, aluminum nitride, ferrite, glass, quartz, sapphire and silicon substrates using a variety of metals and alloys.
Agreements
In May 2005, the company entered into a global consortium agreement with Nisshinbo Industries, Inc. (Nisshinbo) for the development, manufacturing, and sales of solar photovoltaic module manufacturing equipment.
Source: ValuEngine Inc. |
