No, I'm not talking about a nifty cover for your Ipod Touch or some strange wristband that remembers who you've shaken hands with.

This discovery carries a touch more significance. The announcement comes after a successful laboratory demonstration of the first known multiband photovoltaic device featuring three distinct light absorption regions integrated into a single layer thin film device.

Some Context: Multiband solar's potential was discovered almost thirty years ago. The idea: solar conversion efficiency improves when all levels of solar spectrum absorption pass through corresponding "band gaps" for conversion.

In particular, low-energy photos that would normally pass through a solar cell and be wasted can actually be absorbed and converted. Instead of capturing only a portion of the sun's spectrum, we can now capture all of it -- theoretically.

The Low Down: Conventional solar is maxing out at 15% efficiency (on a good day). RSLE's IBand technology may boost efficiency as high as 35%. And if they succeed and couple IBand with mirror and thermal technology, then the efficiency will increase further.

Bob Forcier, CEO of RSLE, stated, "Although we are three to four years away from high volume production with the IBand product, this development opens up a new class of semiconductor devices for photovoltaic conversion and other advanced semiconductor applications."

And it only took 30 years.

businessweek.com