
Project team
Arizona State University
Prof. Christiana Honsberg (PI), Professor of ECE and the Director of the NSF/DOE QESST Engineering Research Center, focuses on development of high efficiency, scalable commercial solar cell technologies. The QESST ERC encompasses silicon, silicon-tandems and advanced technologies.
Prof. Mariana Bertoni has extensive experience in cell fabrication and characterization of PV in R&D and industrial settings. Her group has developed multiple X-ray based techniques to assist in the visualization of micro and nanoscale defects and their focus is the study of the kinetics of defects, failure, degradation at multiple length scales. She actively collaborates with big PV manufacturers (Si and thin film), startups and supply chain characterizing and evaluating their products and next generation designs.
Dr. Stuart Bowden is a co-director of ASU Solar Power Laboratory. He is leading the development of silicon solar cells and various technologies associated with silicon processing. Dr. Bowden also has extensive experience in the characterization of silicon materials for photovoltaic applications. In 2005, he was awarded an R&D 100. He is also the author of the Photovoltaics CDROM that has been used extensively as an educational tool in industry and academia throughout the world.
Prof. Stephen Goodnick (Co-I), Professor of Electrical Engineering and Deputy Director, of ASU LightWorks. He has more than thirty years of experience in research areas related to nanotechnology and energy, with expertise in multi-scale modeling and simulation of photovoltaic devices including electronic structure calculations, transport and device simulation, and full-wave electromagnetic simulation of light trapping structures. He will lead the modeling enhancement efforts of the proposed research.
Dr. Stanislau Herasimenka has extensive experience in novel heterojunction structures, demonstrating the highest voltage Si heterostructure solar cells, as well as high efficiencies on full-area wafers, novel metallization for heterojunction devices, and flexible solar cells.
Prof. Zachary Holman is an expert in silicon solar cells and their use in tandem devices: he has demonstrated >22%-efficient silicon heterojunction solar cells, >25%-efficient perovskite/silicon tandem cells with partners, and >29%-efficient silicon/GaAs four-terminal tandem cells. These tandems and the work proposed here leverage Prof. Holman’s specific expertise in carrier-selective contacts, high-mobility transparent conductive oxides, aerosol deposition, and detailed loss analysis of solar cells. He has led and participated in more than 20 multi-university collaborative projects on these topics in the past five years.
Prof. Richard King (Co-PI), Professor and Research Director of the of the NSF/DOE QESST Engineering Research Center is a world leader in the development of high-efficiency solar cells in a number of semiconductor materials systems, from silicon, to the GaInP, GaInAs, and germanium subcells in III-V multijunction cells. Dr. King’s solar cell research led the emergence of III-V multijunction concentrator cells as the photovoltaic technology with the highest and most rapidly rising efficiency, helping to enable the recent growth of the concentrator photovoltaics industry, which now primarily uses this type of solar cell. His work is recognized by R&D 100 awards in 2001 and 2007, and a Scientific American 50 award in 2002. Dr. King is the recipient of the 2010 William R. Cherry Award.
Prof. Govindasamy (Mani) TamizhMani, Professor and Director of Photovoltaic Reliability Laboratory at ASU and was President of TUV Rheinland Photovoltaic Testing Laboratory 2008 – 2015. He is a recognized leader in reliability. His research focuses on the reliability, durability and lifetime prediction of PV modules using indoor accelerated test data and outdoor field test data. Dr. Mani has served on standards committees including IEEE, IEC and ASTM.
Georgia Institute of Technology
Prof. Ajeet Rohatgi (Co-I), Regents Professor of ECE and founding director of the first university-based DOE Center of Excellence in Photovoltaic Research and Education. Dr. Rohatgi has more than 45 years experience in the science and technology of photovoltaic and microelectronic devices, as well as being the founder and CTO of Suniva.
Dr. Ajay Upadhyaya, is Senior Operations Manager/Project Manager and Senior Research Scientist with more than 20 years experience in microelectronics and photovoltaics related sponsored projects at Georgia Tech.