Dr. Ajeet Rohatgi of Georgia Tech partners with SiXtron - Solar industry guru partners with leading solar startup

Montreal, QC – July 9, 2008 – SiXtron, a developer of thin film coatings for solar cells, announced today that Dr. Ajeet Rohatgi of Georgia Institute of Technology has entered into a partnership with SiXtron Advanced Materials.

 

Dr. Rohatgi is a Regents’ Professor and a Georgia Power Distinguished Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering at Georgia Tech. He is the founding director of the University Center of Excellence for Photovoltaic Research and Education at Georgia Tech. His current research interests include the understanding of impurity effects in silicon solar cells, gettering and passivation of defects in solar grade silicon, rapid thermal processing of solar cells, design and fabrication of high efficiency cells on low-cost crystalline silicon materials, and design, performance and reliability of photovoltaic systems.

 

Dr. Rohatgi is an IEEE Fellow. He has published over three hundred and fifty technical papers in this field and has been awarded eleven patents. He is on the Board and Advisory Board of several PV companies. He served as general chair for the 28th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference in Alaska in 2000. Dr. Rohatgi received the Westinghouse Engineering Achievement Award in 1985 and the Georgia Tech Distinguished Professor Award in 1996 for his research on high efficiency solar cells. In 2003 he received the IEEE PVSC William Cherry Award and the NREL/DOE Rappaport Award for his outstanding contributions to Photovoltaics. In 2007 he received the Georgia Tech Outstanding Research Program Development Award.

 

SiXtron’s CEO Zbigniew Barwicz stated, “We are honored that a researcher of Dr. Rohtagi’s reputation has agreed to partner with SiXtron. This is a terrific endorsement of our approach to coating solar cells.”

 

Dr. Rohatgi said, “SiXtron is working on a revolutionary concept of Silane free deposition of high quality SiNC films for Photovoltaic applications. SiXtron's polymer source can be easily adapted to conventional PECVD reactors to provide a safe and cost effective alternative to widely used silane based SiN films. These films can be used for antireflection coating as well as surface passivation. Films grown from SiXtron's source have already produced greater than 17% efficient screen printed production ready monocrystalline Si cells with potential for even higher efficiencies.”

 

 

About SiXtron

SiXtron is a venture-backed startup focused on developing highly scalable and cost-effective, amorphous silicon carbide (SiC)-based thin film coatings for the solar industry. SiXtron has raised over $15 million since inception from Ventures West Capital, Innovia Capital and Cycle Capital. For more information, visit www.sixtron.com.

 

Contact:

Zbigniew Barwicz

President and CEO, SiXtron

(450) 652-8646

zbarwicz@sixtron.com