SWANAND S VAIDYA

1610 Nantucket circle #117, Santa Clara, CA 95054, swanand29@gmail.com, ph – (313)-415-1526

TECHNICAL PROFILE

 BS,MS in Electrical Engineering with 4+ years of professional core solar technology experience in Solar cells/Modules
testing, characterization, reliability, failure analysis and field monitoring.
 3 years of experience in IEC, UL certification standards and processes pertaining to thin films solar cell technologies.
 4 years of hands on experience in Accelerated and highly accelerated life testing (ALT),(HALT), Highly accelerated stress
screening(HASS), UV exposure testing, other environmental stress testing.
 Expert in Field monitoring studies of PV systems, Modules and arrays, outdoor performance and energy analysis,
 JMP statistical analysis, DOE, SQL programming, databases, MS excel VBA macros, LABVIEW programming
 Solid understanding of solar cell physics and vast experience in solar cell characterization using IV,CV QE,SEM

EXPERIENCE

RELIABILITY ENGINEER, SoloPower Inc San Jose CA Dec 08-Present

 Responsibilities

 Design and conduct targeted experiments addressing specific technical issue of Product development and convey data and
finding in the form of reports and presentations.
 IEC and UL qualification testing, Accelerated life testing, DH,TC, design for reliability(DFR) and field monitoring of CIGS flat
plat modules.
Analyzed reliability data to determine module reliability, lifetime, and degradation rate.
Investigated multiple avenues and mechanisms for device failures and degradation.
 Interface with the product development team, defining & executing internal qualification test plans for new material, design, &
processes.
Supervise technicians to ensure adherence to reliability and qualification test schedules.
 Development of 2.2Kw rooftop grid tied PV systems and Outdoor field monitoring of grid tied system, interfacing with
marketing and sales and potential customer for real PV performance.
Cell level and module lever failure analysis using EL,IR,LIT

 Achievements
Successfully developed a Flash tester calibration within NREL spec and own the calibration program at SoloPower.
Developed a co-relation of cell efficiency and EL response of cell.
Designed and recommended integrated Bypass diode for CIGS flat plate modules.
Developed Indoor light soaking station using innovative sulphur plasma lamps.

RELIABILITY ENGINEER, EPV Solar Inc Robbinsville NJ May 2008-Dec2008

 Responsibilities

 Reliability laboratory design, build-out, and maintenance. Selecting environmental chambers, Hi Pot testers and all the other
laboratory equipments.
 Qualifying new materials and products for reliability. Compliance qualification according to IEC and UL for new cost
reduction (CR) products and
 Project leader for the Outdoor Test Facility (OTF) development. Selecting and surveying site, devising plans, obtaining
permits for Outdoor Solar deployments.
 Field Monitoring of a-Si glass modules and analyzing data from various deployments in the Europe and USA.

 Achievements
 Successfully developed and led the IV tester calibration program across various EPV solar sites in USA and Germany
and Taiwan.

SR. DEVICE ENGINEER Plextronics Inc Pittsburgh PA Aug 2005-May 2008

  Responsibilities
 Designed and performed experiments to quantify new and existing accelerated weathering tests.
 Managed process and technology development through design of experiments (DOE) for Lifetime enhancement,
reliability and encapsulation quality.
 Evaluated trends analytically and statistically in lifetime performance in different device architectures.
 Hands-on Climatic Testing, HALT (Highly Accelerated Life Testing) and HASS (Highly Accelerated Stress
Screening), measurement, analysis, designing for climatics.
 IEC 61646 and IEC 61215 standards implementation and worked towards a new standard for Organic thin film
solar cells reliability and lifetime testing.
 Developed work plans, gathered and synthesized relevant data, led analyses for developing final recommendations for
lifetime testing of solar cells. Designed reliability studies of PV modules and Solar cells.
 Participated in active discussions with National renewable energy laboratory (NREL), scientists within the team and
outside for Performance enhancement and evaluation strategies.
 Worked closely with device fabrication teams and materials team for coordinating the activities around device
fabrication and testing. Coordinated with other teams for convey data and findings.
 Development, fabrication, testing and analysis of solar cells.
 Generated reports and standard operating procedures for lifetime testing.
 Conducted failure analysis to support product engineering, development, and operations.
 Characterized acceleration factors and developed new tests for the accelerated life testing that is used to ensure long-
term reliability.
 Calibrated the solar simulator on NREL standards and performed testing on stringent criteria to report accurate and reliable
efficiency numbers.

SOLAR TECHNOLOGY & SOFTWARE EXPERTISE

 SQL, JMP, DOE, Labview, MS Excel, VBA and statistical tools for data analysis.
 IEC 61646/61730/61215 and UL1703 compliance testing, ALT,HALT,HASS,DH and TC testing and
determination of acceleration factors
 IV testing, CV testing, Impedance spectroscopy, EQE analysis, IV testers calibration(Flash, continuous,
Electroluminescence and Photoluminescence (EL) and (PL), Infrared (IR) analysis for failure mechanisms, LIT or lock in
themrography diagnostic tools to investigate shunts.
 Excellent written and oral communication skills and solid analytical skills.
 Solid understanding of Solar cell device physics. Optical and Electrical characterization of solar cells.

EDUCATION

Wayne State University, Detroit MI — M.S, Electrical Engineering, 2005

M.S thesis – “Electrical transport and switching properties of polythiophene based water soluble conducting polymer at nano-
scale”
Nagpur University Nagpur, India — B.S, Electrical Engineering, 2001
Solar Panel installation and maintenance certification Local 95,CCAC college 02/2008-06/2008

PRESENTATIONS & PUBLICATIONS

 “Advances in PlexcoreTM active layer technology systems for organic photovoltaic: Roof top and accelerated
lifetime analysis of high performance organic photovoltaic cells” Darin Laird, Swanand Vaidya Sergey Li, Mathew
Mathai, Shawn Williams, Troy Hammond SPIE 07, Optics and Photonics, San Diego CA
 “Electrical Transport properties of single molecular wire”- Swanand S. Vaidya, Jaewu Choi, G. Khara – proceedings of
fifth international conference on microelectronics and interfaces American vacuum society ICMI04-AVS Santa Clara,
CA. March 04.
 “Water Soluble Conducting Polymer Field Effect Transistor for Sensor Application”- Swanand S. Vaidya, Jaewu
Choi, Y Song, American physical society (APS March meeting March 21’ 05 Los Angeles, CA (oral presentation).

MY VALUES

 Experienced professional with keen interests in Renewable Energy technology

 Strong team player, Entrepreneurial disposition.
 Hands-on with proven ability to multi-task on a timely basis
 Strong communication, analytical and problem solving, organizational skills.
 Ability to innovate and grow