Ascent Solar was formed by ITN in order to commercialize CIGS Photovoltaic technology. Since 1994 ITN has performed approximately 35 contracts for private and government entities in advanced PV technologies. Government sponsors of these contracts include the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, the National Science Foundation, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Missile Defense Agency and NASA. Through its work on these contracts, ITN has developed useful and proprietary processing and manufacturing know-how applicable to PV products generally and CIGS PV products in particular, including the creation and adoption of key processing technologies and the development of a monolithic integration fabrication process.