Suncore Joint Venture	12 Months Ended
Suncore Joint Venture	Sep. 30, 2011
Suncore Joint Venture [Abstract]
Suncore Joint Venture [Text Block]	Suncore Joint Venture On July 30, 2010, we entered into a joint venture agreement with San'an Optoelectronics Co., Ltd., or San'an, for the purpose of engaging in the development, manufacturing, and distribution of CPV receivers, modules, and systems for terrestrial solar power applications under a technology license from us. The joint venture, Suncore Photovoltaic Technology Co., Ltd., or Suncore, is a limited liability company under the laws of the People's Republic of China. The establishment of the Suncore entity occurred on January 12, 2011 after receiving Chinese regional government approval. The total registered capital of Suncore is $30 million, of which San'an has contributed $18 million in cash and EMCORE has contributed $12 million in cash. We are not required to contribute additional funds in excess of our initial $12 million investment, and at this time, we do not anticipate contributing any additional funds to Suncore. All operational activities and business for CPV receivers, modules, and systems currently residing at both San'an and our Langfang, China manufacturing facility will eventually be transferred to Suncore. In conjunction with this joint venture, we have agreed to grant Suncore an exclusive license to manufacture our current and future improved CPV receivers, modules and systems in China for terrestrial solar power applications. In addition, we entered into a Cooperation Agreement with an affiliate of San'an whereby we have received $8.5 million in consulting fees in exchange for the technology license and related support and strategic consulting services to Suncore. Pursuant to the Cooperation Agreement, the San'an affiliate will provide Suncore with working capital financing in the form of loans and/or guarantees. On December 4, 2010, we entered into an Investment and Cooperation Agreement, or IC Agreement, with San'an and the Huainan Municipal Government, or Huainan, in China. The IC Agreement provides for Suncore's primary engineering, manufacturing, and distribution operations for CPV components and systems to be established in the High-Tech Development Zone of Huainan City in exchange for subsidies and favorable tax and other incentives to be provided by Huainan. Under the terms of the IC Agreement, Huainan has committed to providing subsidies that include: reimbursement of 100% of the local portion of the business, value added and income taxes incurred during the first five years of Suncore's production activities and 50% of the amount of those taxes during the subsequent five years; reimbursement of certain administrative and utility charges within the Huainan City High-Tech Development Zone; cash rebates to Suncore of RMB 1.4 (approximately US$0.21) for every watt of the first 1,000 megawatts of CPV systems manufactured in Huainan and sold in China; and a cash subsidy of RMB 500 million (approximately U.S. $75 million) that may be used solely for the purchase of capital equipment for the development of Suncore's operations in Huainan. The IC Agreement was subject to and received approval from the shareholders of San'an on December 23, 2010. Accounting Treatment: In our opinion, neither San'an nor EMCORE holds a controlling financial interest in Suncore because neither party has exclusive authority over decision-making related to significant ordinary course of business actions such as establishing a budget, compensation, and the hiring and firing of certain executive personnel. Therefore, we have accounted for our investment in Suncore using the equity method of accounting. To date, we have contributed $12.0 million to Suncore as a capital contribution and have received $8.5 million of consulting fees from the San'an affiliate. We reviewed the substance of the consulting fee arrangement and concluded that the consulting fees are tied to the nonmonetary assets that were contributed to Suncore at formation. Therefore, we have recorded the consulting fees as a reduction to our investment in Suncore. In fiscal 2012, we will be recognizing the $8.5 million basis difference in our equity investment related to the receipt of the consulting fees over a five-year period using the straight-line amortization method, which is based on the estimated useful life. Pursuant to the joint venture agreement, San'an and EMCORE share the profits, losses, and risks of Suncore in proportion to and, in the event of losses, to the extent of their respective contributions to the registered capital of Suncore. As of September 30, 2011, we continued to hold a 40% registered ownership in Suncore and we recorded losses of $1.8 million for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2011 from this equity method investment which was primarily related to start-up activities. Development Agreement: In August 2011, we signed a solar rooftop CPV development agreement with our Suncore joint venture pursuant to which we will collaborate on the development and application of the current 500X and next-generation 1000X rooftop CPV systems. In summary, Suncore agreed to purchase joint ownership rights to rooftop CPV intellectual property and reimburse us 50% of all research and development costs incurred related to rooftop CPV solutions in exchange for joint ownership rights to the newly developed intellectual property. In addition, Suncore will pay us a development fee of 20% on research and development costs billed to Suncore with a maximum development fee payout of approximately $0.2 million.

The entire disclosure for equity investment, or group of investments, for which combined disclosure is appropriate, including: (a) the name of each investee and percentage of ownership of common stock, (b) accounting policies for investments in common stock, (c) difference between the amount at which the investment is carried and the amount of underlying equity in net assets and the accounting treatment of the difference, (d) the total fair value of each identified investment for which a market value is available, (e) summarized information as to assets, liabilities, and results of operations of the investees (for investments in unconsolidated subsidiaries, common stock of joint ventures, or other investments using the equity method), and (f) material effects of possible conversions, exercises, or contingent issuances of the investee. Other disclosures include (a) the names of any investee in which the investor owns 20 percent or more of the voting stock and investment is not accounted for using the equity method, and the reasons why not, and (b) the names of any investee in which the investor owns less than 20 percent of the voting stock and the investment is accounted for using the equity method, and the reasons why it is.

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