Anand Subbiah

Anand Selvin Subbiah is a results-oriented Research Scientist and Photovoltaics Expert with over 10 years of experience advancing solar energy technologies, currently driving innovation at the KAUST Solar Center. Specializing in Perovskite and Perovskite/Silicon Tandem Solar Cells, he has established a reputation for bridging the gap between fundamental device physics and industrial scalability. His expertise lies in developing high-efficiency, large-area photovoltaic devices using scalable solution-processing techniques, including slot-die and blade coating. A prolific contributor to the field with over 70 peer-reviewed publications, Anand has successfully led projects tackling critical challenges in stability, hydrophobic surface scaling, and interfacial engineering, achieving record-level efficiencies (up to 32.1% for scalable tandem devices). He is now seeking to leverage his deep technical acumen in semiconductor physics and material upscaling to lead R&D initiatives or advanced manufacturing efforts in the renewable energy sector.

As a member of KPV laboratory under Prof. Stefaan De Wolf, my major role is to establish SHJ and tandem perovskite solar cells (PSCs) using scalable fabrication techniques. My lead work involved developing PSCs with record efficiencies (21.9%) using slot-die technique from initial ground-zero and later the technology was successfully transferred to QD Solar Inc., for industrial exploration. Apart from my research activities, I actively contributed to grant writing process, lab-operations, collaborations and supervision of student interns. Recently, my proposal as co-personnel with Prof. Stefaan  for scaling-up for 4-T perovskite silicon tandems was granted 1 million USD, wherein I serve as the key personnel. Here we achieved >15% semi-T PSC devices using slot-die coating for >100 cm2 (Eg ~ 1.7 eV) and target 4T tandems above 24% on 6 inch2 substrates using P1-P2-P3 architecture. I also work as lead in a project for developing 2-T monolithic tandems by blade/slot-die wherein I recently achieved certified ~31.2% efficient tandems (1 cm2), currently a record for scalable solution processing techniques such as blade coating. I also served as a lab affiliate with LBNL Berkeley for a period of one year. 

I received my Ph.D. in Energy Science and Engineering from IIT Bombay, a top-ranked and presitigious institute, I was also felicitated with an Award for Excellence in Ph.D. Research amidst a hundred doctoral theses at IIT Bombay during the year 2017-2019. At IIT Bombay, I actively collaborated with academic and industrial partners across various institutes such as Weizmann (Israel), NTU (Singapore), NREL (Colorado), HHV (India) etc., During the course of my Ph.D., I also significantly contributed towards successful grant proposals, organized lectures, prepared slides, prepared and evaluated exams and assignments for courses over a period of four academic years (2013-2018). I also help organize departmental lab sessions, key note presentations, brain-storm sessions and conferences during my Ph.D. stay. 

As the very first student working on PSCs in my lab, I developed and standardized fabrication techniques using solution processing as well as vacuum deposition and worked closely with the development of many experimental equipment. I was instrumental in designing, assembling and operation-maintenance of various fabrication custom-built tools such as thermal evaporation, flash evaporation, sputtering system, thermal ALD systems and restoration of a discarded glove box for PSC fabrication. I also established a few in-house characterization tools such as JV measurement, EQE setup, transient photo-voltage/current measurement, Impedance spectroscopy, and humidity-controlled device stability measurements. I was instrumental in improving the performance of PSCs from ground zero to ~21% efficiency parallely estabilishing the necessary tools, characterization, and know-how

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Ph.D. Energy Science and Engineering (CGPA: 9.26/10), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India.

Thesis: Inorganic Metal Oxide Charge Transport Layers for Planar Perovskite Photovoltaics. 

Best Thesis Award, IIT Bombay, 2019

M. Tech, Nanotechnology (CGPA: 8.63/10), PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, India.           

Thesis: Cost effective fabrication of flexible CIGS Solar cells using wet chemical synthesis.                             

(First class with distinction)

B. Tech, Electronics and Communication (CGPA: 8.07/10), Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore, India.

Thesis: Non-planar and miniaturization studies on micro-strip patch antennas for air-borne vehicles.                     

(First class with distinction)