Assets being purchased include product design and patented intellectual property.

California-headquartered JDSU manufactures optical products for the communications industry and will use the acquisition to build on its own concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) cell production activities.

CPV cells, one of the newest forms of solar energy technology, work by using optics to concentrate large amounts of sunlight onto a small area. The process reduces the manufacture cost as the concentration means less cells are needed.

Alan Lowe, president of the CCOP unit of JDSU, says that the CPV market is gaining momentum with major installations happening worldwide.

Lowe adds: ‘Incorporating key QuantaSol technology will allow us to further differentiate our products and expand our position in the CPV solar market as popularity for it continues to grow.’

According to statistics from GreenTech Media, a business focused on green technology and cleantech, more than 1 gigawatt of CPV installations are expected by 2015, an increase of 10,000 per cent from 10 megawatts of installations in 2010.

JDSU is to use the multiple quantum well technology from QuantaSol for its CPV cell production activities. The company has 4,700 employees across 80 locations around the world.