NACSA

NACSA presents:

Thin-Film Solar Technology: The Future or the Present?

Sponsored by Applied Materials

Date: Thursday, April 12th, 2007
Event Time: 7:30pm (7:00 networking). Snacks and refreshments will be provided
Venue: Applied Materials Building 12, Conference Room A/B
Address: 3225 Oakmead Village Drive, Santa Clara, CA 95052 Google Map
Cost: $10 w/ RSVP; $20 at the door
RSVP: RSVP before 4/11 to Renxin_xia@nacsa.com and include your name, affiliation, email and phone number.

ALL EVENTS ARE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

The solar industry has experienced tremendous growths in the last few years as the world turn to renewable energy to combat global warming and the dependence on oil. On the other hand, the high demand on raw silicon has dramatically increased silicon wafer prices and has become an obstacle to the solar industry's further growth. Unless there is a technological breakthough, the goal of grid parity remains far off in the future.

Many technologists and investors are banking that thin-film solar technology is just the breakthrough needed for a paradigm shift in the solar industry. Thin-film is not constrained by the supply of raw materials and promises significantly lower manufacturing costs. It also creates new opportunities in flexible materials and BIPV (building-integrated photovoltaics). However, it also faces its own challenges in terms of manufacturability, efficiency, and a high upfront cost.

Is thin-film technology the solution of today or the future? We invited top executives from the leading thin-film solar companies to share with us their visions and educate us on the different thin-film technologies, their promises, challenges, and solutions.

NACSA invites its members and other professionals with interests in solar technology to join us for this exciting discussion. To learn more about NACSA and this event, please refer to our website: www.nacsa.com.
Confirmed Speakers:

David Pearce – President and CEO, Miasole

Mr. Pearce has over 30 years of broad-based business, sales, operations and financial management experience in both private and public high-technology companies. He has been at the CEO level for the past 18 years. Mr. Pearce is a serial entrepreneur, having founded four venture-backed companies, including: OptCom, which manufactured precision thin-film optical filters, and SciVac which designed and manufactured thin-film vacuum-deposition equipment.
As president and CEO of Domain Technology (another venture-backed company), Mr. Pearce helped pioneer the manufacture of sputtered thin-film disks. This system was subsequently acquired by Seagate Technology and went on to revolutionize the cost, throughput, and precision-coating capability of the industry.
Prior experience includes serving as CFO/COO of MiniScribe (an early pioneer in small format hard-disk drives), and in financial management roles at Datapoint and Xerox Corporation.
Mr. Pearce holds an MBA from the University of Texas, Austin, and a BS in Industrial Management from Georgia Tech.

James Sheats – Associate CTO, Nanosolar

James Sheats is known as a leading expert on roll-to-roll manufacturing. Prior to Nanosolar, James Sheats was Chief Technology Officer at Novus Communications Technologies, a developer of roll-manufactured displays, and, before that, Chief Technology Officer of Rolltronics Corporation, a company focused on roll-to-roll manufacturing technologies for flexible electronics. Prior to this, he spent 20 years at HP Labs, where he worked on a wide variety of projects in thin film electronics, including microlithography, superconductivity, electroluminescence and energy-conserving electronic devices. A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he holds a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Stanford University and has published over 50 journal articles and filed 21 patents.

Dave Eaglesham – VP Technology, First Solar

David Eaglesham is VP technology at First Solar. He has a PhD in Physics from the University of Bristol and worked as a Lecturer at Liverpool University before joining Bell Labs in 1988. At Bell Labs he worked on semiconductor deposition techniques and doping and rose (or sank) to be Director of Electronic Device Research. He worked at Lawrence Livermore as Chief Technologist and at Applied Materials as Director of Advanced Technologies before joining First Solar. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, was named Outstanding Young Investigator by the Materials Research Society in 1994, and was MRS President in 2005.
He will discuss the major cost-drivers for TF PV, and describe the pathway towards grid-parity.

J. Craig Hunter – GM Thin Film Products, Solar Business Group, Applied Materials

Since helping form the Solar Business Group in 2005, Craig has been responsible for developing Applied Material's product portfolio and business strategy for thin film solar. A major activity of this group is the development, marketing and installation of Generation 8.5 (5.7m2 substrates) thin film silicon photovoltaic production lines.
Craig previously worked at AKT, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Applied Materials that is a leader in the manufacturing of large area equipment used in TFT-LCD production. At AKT, Craig held various positions, including Business Development Manager, Senior Manager of Strategic Marketing and Product Manager for AKT's electron beam test (EBT) and physical vapor deposition (PVD) systems.
Prior to joining Applied Materials, Craig's various roles included Chief Financial Officer of Evercare Corporation, a manufacturer of consumer products, and Director of Mergers and Acquisitions at The Beacon Group in New York.
Mr. Hunter studied East Asian Studies at Harvard College and graduated with high distinction from Harvard Business School.

About NACSA:

Founded in September 1996 by a group of semiconductor professionals in the Silicon Valley, North America Chinese Semiconductor Association (NACSA) is a professional organization dedicated to the advancement of and collaboration among the Chinese professionals in high-tech industries.

NACSA is an inclusive organization, open to anyone sharing with our common mission, which is to strengthen networking among professionals, foster the entrepreneurship among ethnic Chinese, and promote the exchange in the global semiconductor and information technology industries. NACSA's philosophy is learning by doing, networking by involving, exchanging by interacting, entrepreneuring by trying, and benefiting by contributing.

Please refer to our website for more information: www.nacsa.com.