Dr. Babu Chalamala is Manager of the Energy Storage Technology and Systems Department at Sandia National Laboratories. Prior to joining Sandia in 2015, he was a Corporate Fellow at MEMC Electronic Materials/SunEdison for five years, where he led R&D and product development in grid scale energy storage technologies. Before that, he led two startup companies commercializing large format lithium batteries and digital x-ray sources. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and the Academy of Sciences St Louis, a Life Member of the Electrochemical Society, and a Member of the Materials Research Society.
Abstract: Silicon substrates form the foundation for microelectronics and photovoltaics. This talk will discuss the development of silicon as an electronic material, from metallurgical silicon to the manufacture of silicon wafers for microelectronics and photovoltaics, and is based on the sixty-year legacy of Monsanto Electronic Materials Co (MEMC) to silicon materials technology. The presentation will give an overview of the role of silicon in the chemical, metallurgical and microelectronic industries, and discusses electronic grade silicon manufacturing, including crystal growth and wafers for microelectronics. This is followed by a discussion on materials and wafer manufacturing technologies for silicon photovoltaics, highlighting recent advances in lowering the cost of silicon photovoltaics.