When Idemitsu Kosan joined UC Santa Barbara’s Solid State Lighting & Energy Electronics Center (SSLEEC) in 2023, the Japanese energy and materials company did more than support research from abroad. It sent one of its own scientists to work alongside UCSB researchers. Three years later, that relationship has taken another step.
Idemitsu has opened its first U.S.-based development laboratory for space-grade Copper Indium Gallium Selenide, or CIGS, solar cells at OASIS, UCSB’s hub for industry collaboration, technology development, and commercialization. The lab will support the company’s efforts to advance the thin-film solar technology for satellites and other space applications.
The move also marks an important moment for OASIS. Created by The Robert Mehrabian College of Engineering to help bridge the gap between academic discovery and real-world deployment, OASIS brings university researchers into closer proximity with startups, established companies, and regional and federal partners. Idemitsu adds something significant to that mix: a global company moving beyond sponsored university research to establish its own development operation alongside UCSB.
“Idemitsu’s relationship with UCSB began with a shared interest in advancing semiconductor research, and in a short time, it has grown into something much broader,” said Umesh Mishra, dean of The Robert Mehrabian College of Engineering. “Opening a dedicated lab at OASIS brings research expertise, technology development, industry, and customers closer together. That kind of proximity can shorten the distance between a promising idea and a technology that can have real-world impact.”
Idemitsu formally joined SSLEEC in spring 2023, as a member company, supporting the center’s research activities and enabling an Idemitsu visiting researcher to work alongside the UCSB research community. The agreement supported the center’s research activities, laboratory infrastructure, and graduate students working in solid-state lighting, electronics, and energy. It also enabled Idemitsu to place a visiting researcher at UCSB.
Working alongside faculty, students, and other partners gave the company a firsthand look at a collaborative environment that extended beyond a conventional sponsored-research relationship.
“Our relationship with UCSB through SSLEEC played an important role in building familiarity with the local innovation ecosystem,” said Yuichiro Omura, Senior Vice President of Idemitsu Americas Holdings. “Through our collaboration with researchers, students, and industry partners, we experienced firsthand the highly collaborative culture that makes UCSB and the Santa Barbara community unique.”
That experience ultimately helped Idemitsu decide to put down deeper roots.
“Having an Idemitsu researcher working closely with the UCSB community also gave us valuable insight into how effectively research, entrepreneurship, and industry collaboration come together here,” Omura said. “Those experiences reinforced our belief that establishing a more permanent presence would enable deeper engagement with both the scientific community and the space industry.”
The Santa Barbara region is home to satellite manufacturers, spacecraft developers, and emerging space companies, giving Idemitsu access to potential customers while keeping its engineers connected to UCSB’s research community.
“OASIS offers far more than laboratory space,” Omura said. “It brings together industry, academia, and government in a way that helps accelerate innovation and technology adoption.”
That is precisely the stage of technology development that OASIS was created to address.
Promising discoveries can emerge from university laboratories long before they are ready for customers or large-scale manufacturing. Between those points are less visible, but critical, steps such as prototyping, testing, validation, and understanding what the market actually needs. OASIS provides a place for that work to happen closer to the research that made the technology possible.
Idemitsu offers an early example of how that model can work for an established company, not only a startup.
“Idemitsu choosing OASIS for its first U.S. laboratory for space solar technology is real validation of the model we set out to create,” said Tal Margalith, the college’s executive director of strategic partnerships and innovation. “It is a testament to the need, both in this region and nationally, for places where academia, established companies, startups, and public partners can work side by side to move promising technologies toward real-world use faster.”
Inside its new lab, Idemitsu engineers will carry out technical evaluation work informed by customer and mission needs. The space will also allow customers and technical partners to engage more closely with the company’s engineers. The proximity should allow those conversations to influence the technology much earlier in the development process.
“By combining hands-on technical evaluation with close customer engagement, we can better understand application requirements, validate potential solutions, and rapidly incorporate market feedback into future product development,” Omura said.
The work in Santa Barbara will complement the company’s ongoing efforts in Japan, where the company is building a pilot production line with the goal of establishing mass-production technologies for space-grade CIGS solar cells.
“Our teams in the U.S. and Japan will work closely together,” Omura said.
A satellite company, for example, might have specific requirements related to a mission profile, spacecraft integration, reliability, or operating environment. Being close to such customers can help Idemitsu better understand those needs and reflect them in its technology development.
Idemitsu sees this closer connection with customers as essential to bring the technology to market faster.
Built for Space
CIGS could offer important advantages in an environment where every gram and every component matters.
The thin-film semiconductor, made from copper, indium, gallium, and selenium, can be deposited in extremely thin layers on lightweight, flexible substrates. It has also demonstrated strong resistance to radiation, a significant consideration for solar cells expected to operate for extended periods in space. As missions become more demanding, Omura said that radiation can place important limits on spacecraft power systems.
“We believe this capability can help unlock new opportunities for space systems by reducing a critical performance constraint and enabling a broader range of future missions,” he said.
CIGS could offer another advantage as demand for space-based power systems grows: a path toward more scalable manufacturing.
Through Solar Frontier, the Idemitsu Group has decades of experience in CIGS thin-film technology. The company believes that manufacturing knowledge developed through terrestrial solar applications could eventually be applied to space.
At UCSB, the scientific connection runs through decades of work in semiconductor materials and devices. CIGS cells differ from the LEDs, lasers, and other technologies long associated with SSLEEC, but researchers confront many of the same underlying questions: how to control semiconductor composition and interfaces, fabricate devices at small scales, and manage the movement of electrons through layers of material.
The new lab adds another step to that continuum, bringing development and customer needs closer to the research environment.
A Growing Presence
For Idemitsu, opening the lab is not the culmination of its relationship with UCSB.
“We view the current laboratory as the beginning of a long-term relationship rather than a final destination,” Omura said.
The company expects to explore additional opportunities to work with UCSB researchers, students, and industry partners as its activities develop.
That possibility points to the larger ambition behind OASIS. Rather than creating separate lanes for university research, entrepreneurship, corporate R&D, and public investment, the college is trying to create a place where those communities can interact as technologies move from discovery toward use. Omura sees that kind of convergence as increasingly important.
“We believe the future of space technology will be shaped by collaboration among industry, academia, and government,” he said. “UCSB and OASIS have created an environment where those interactions can happen naturally and effectively.”
Idemitsu’s progression at UCSB, from SSLEEC member, to an embedded researcher, to its own development laboratory, offers an early demonstration of that idea.
“By establishing our first U.S. laboratory for space solar technology at OASIS, we hope not only to accelerate the commercialization of space-grade CIGS solar technology, but also to contribute to a growing innovation ecosystem that connects researchers, entrepreneurs, established companies, and the next generation of talent,” Omura said.
Caption: Idemitsu has a three-member team based at OASIS, (left to right) Michael Stinson, director of business development and technical programs; Yuichiro Omura, senior vice president; and Tony Cavalli, III, lead prototype and test engineer.
