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Process Engineer - Solar Cell Manufacturing (Friday-Monday, 10 hours/day)

Solestial

Solestial

Tempe, AZ, USA
Posted on Nov 10, 2023
The Company:
Solestial, Inc. is the solar energy company for space. Solestial’s core technology is a breakthrough ultra-thin silicon solar cell that can self-cure radiation damage at normal operating temperatures in space, packaged in a flexible, lightweight panel designed to achieve minimum degradation for up to 10 years in LEO. Solestial panels can be mass-produced using automated machines resulting in costs 90% lower than incumbent technologies, with virtually unlimited manufacturing capacity. From today’s satellite constellations and research projects to tomorrow’s utility-scale energy infrastructure and services in space, Solestial is powering the new space economy.
The Role:
As a Process Engineer you will be a member of the R&D team developing solar cell technologies at Solestial. You will be leading innovation in one or several adjacent process steps in the fabrication flow. Your daily duties will include running pilot production lots, characterizing material and devices, simulating devices and processes, collecting and sharing the data with your teammates. You will work in direct collaboration with equipment and material vendors to develop and optimize process steps. As the company continues to grow, we will expect you to train and manage a team of technicians as well as the next generation of process engineers.
This is an exciting position as part of a positive, supportive, and passionate team! A competitive compensation package, including equity and full benefits (see below), will be offered.

Specific Responsibilities to Include:

  • Available to work Friday-Monday, 8am - 6pm.
  • Run baseline recipes for pilot production lots.
  • Optimize process steps to minimize yield losses.
  • Work with equipment technicians to maintain equipment performance.
  • Prepare standard operating procedures and other documentation.
  • Characterize silicon wafers (optical microscopy, SEM) and partially processed solar cells (Sinton lifetime, photoluminescence, reflectance).
  • Analyze characterization data and present to the technical team.
  • Develop new technological equipment to improve cell quality and accommodate different wafer form factors.
  • Develop new processes to improve characteristics of the solar cells.
  • Transition the developed processes to large scale production tools.
  • Work with equipment and material vendors to develop novel process steps and designs.
  • Develop innovative methods to reduce the cost of processing.
  • Train technicians and future tool users.
  • Follow safety requirements and prevent accidents.
  • Maintain clean work environment.
  • Understand the entire processing sequence and interactions of solar cell process steps and design features.
  • Work in collaboration with other process leads to achieve required performance specifications (efficiency, cost, reliability).

Your Background:

  • Bachelor degree in Engineering, Materials Science, Physics or related fields.
  • 3+ years proven experience in engineering roles, with a strong technical background.
  • Ability to work in a class 1,000 clean room environment.
  • Ability to conduct wafer processing wearing the necessary PPE.
  • Ability to work in a dynamic environment.
  • Strong analytical skills, basic data analysis and presentation, clear communication.
  • Good mentoring and communications skills.
  • Team player.
  • Positive attitude.
  • Previous management or lead experience preferred.
  • Previous experience working in a clean room environment (production or R&D) as well as experience with semiconductor industry (solar cells/modules, chips, circuit boards, LEDs) is a strong plus.

Our Benefits:

  • Generous, high-quality medical, dental and vision coverage on day one of employment
  • A minimum of 15 days PTO and 9 paid holidays annually
  • 401K with employer match up to 4% of salary
  • Employer-paid short-term and long-term disability and employer-sponsored life insurance