Gallium is widely used in the semiconductor industry as a substrate. It does not exist in free form, but is extracted from aluminium hydroxide. Gallium is one of the six elements that are liquid near room temperature. The others are caesium, francium, mercury, rubidium, and bromine. Gallium is combined with copper, indium and selenium to form CIGS, a semiconductor material used in thin-film solar cells. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) achieved a record 19.9% efficiency with a CIGS solar cell, which is higher than other thin film technologies like amorphous silicon and cadmium telluride.
Aluminum Corporation of China (NYSE: ACH) - Chalco produces gallium metal and gallium oxide
Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP)
AXT, Inc (NASDAQ: AXTI) - manufactures and sells raw materials to the semiconductor substrate industry through joint ventures in China. These materials include gallium, arsenic, boron, and germanium.
GEO Gallium - High purity gallium for optoelectronic applications
Companies that use CIGS technology:
DayStar Technologies (NASDAQ: DSTI)
Global Solar
Miasole
GroupSat Solar
Solyndra
HelioVolt
Gallium News 2010-02-23 - (mw) - IR introduces industry's first commercially available GaN-based iP2010 and iP2011 integrated power stage devices