News Archive Item
Job Openings: R&D Postions at SpectraWatt, Hillsboro, OR
Description:
SpectraWatt: Research and Development positions based in Hillsboro, Oregon:
- Sr. Research Scientist – Deposition/Vacuum Expertise
- Sr. Research Scientist – CdTe/CIGS Expertise
- Research Associates
“SpectraWatt is a U.S. based manufacturer of crystalline silicon solar cells focused on delivering innovative products of superior quality. Our state of the art, fully-automated, cell manufacturing process along with our extensive research and development capabilities are ideally suited to meet the ever-growing needs of the solar industry.”
Senior Research Scientist – Deposition/Vacuum Expertise
Job Description
We are seeking highly talented candidates to join our R&D team to help develop the next generation high-efficiency low-cost photovoltaic technology. Specifically, we are looking for candidates with extensive experience building, modifying, and maintaining thin-film deposition chambers. We operate in a deadline driven environment, so candidates must be creative, entrepreneurial, and able to reach stretch goals. You will be working in the lab 60+% of the time and will attend weekly R&D group and sub-group meetings to participate in research planning and discussions.
Job Requirements/Responsibilities
- Positive, go get’em attitude
- Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively in a team
- Good oral and written communication
- Demonstrated academic or industrial performance
- Work closely with other Senior Scientists, giving and accepting feedback on experiments and tasks
- Lead meetings and efficiently write research/meeting summaries/reports
- Identify deposition techniques that are suited for deposition of novel thin film PV materials
- Work to optimize material quality and deposition rate
- Characterize optoelectronic and structural properties of thin film materials
- Develop processes for depositing multilayer and compositionally graded layer structures in single chamber systems
- Work to understand the trade-offs in throughput and material quality for a range of materials and deposition methods
- Identify and characterize defects and impurities in amorphous and polycrystalline materials, adjust processing to minimize defects
- Design and source custom deposition equipment for large area substrates
- Work with vendors to acquire sample materials and to build custom, development-scale deposition equipment
- Ability to perform tasks outside the defined job description if necessary (startup mentality),
- Comfortable with ambiguity of direction.
Minimum Qualifications
- PhD in Materials Science, Physics, Chemistry, or Engineering
- Experience with building, modifying, and maintaining thin film PVD or CVD deposition systems
Ideal candidate:
- Experience with semiconductor device testing and materials characterization
- Experience with CdTe, CIGS, or other thin film solar materials
- Startup and Industrial experience
 
Senior Research Scientist – CdTe/CIGS Expertise
Job Description
We are seeking highly talented candidates to join our R&D team to help develop the next generation high-efficiency low-cost photovoltaic technology. Specifically, we are looking for candidates with extensive experience optimizing processes in thin film solar cells. We operate in a deadline driven environment, so candidates must be creative, entrepreneurial, and able to reach stretch goals. You will be working in the lab 60+% of the time and will attend weekly R&D group and sub-group meetings to participate in research planning and discussions.
Job Requirements/Responsibilities
- Positive, go get’em attitude
- Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively in a team
- Good oral and written communication
- Demonstrated academic or industrial performance
- Work closely with other Senior Scientists, giving and accepting feedback on experiments and tasks
- Lead meetings and efficiently write research/meeting summaries/reports
- Extensive experience developing CdTe, CIGS, or similar
- Deep knowledge of growth control of photovoltaic absorbers and post-processing techniques (e.g. CdCl2 treatments, Se-environment anneals, etc.)
- Work to optimize material quality and deposition rate
- Characterize optoelectronic and structural properties of thin film materials
- Develop processes for depositing multilayer and compositionally graded layer structures in single chamber systems
- Identify and characterize defects and impurities in amorphous and polycrystalline materials, adjust processing to minimize defects
- Ability to perform tasks outside the defined job description if necessary (startup mentality),
- Comfortable with ambiguity of direction.
Minimum Qualifications
- PhD in Materials Science, Physics, Chemistry, or Engineering
- Experience with process optimization of CdTe, CIGS, or other thin film solar materials
Ideal candidate:
- Experience with semiconductor device testing and materials characterization
- Experience building, modifying, and maintaining thin film PVD or CVD deposition systems
- Startup and Industrial experience
 
Job Description
We are seeking an individual to provide engineering support for the SpectraWatt research and development team. Your primary role will be to apply basic engineering principles and technical skills in support of R&D scientists engaged in developing control and measurement systems and procedures. Duties include instrumentation design and maintenance, calibration, design and production testing and scheduling, automated equipment functions, and report preparation. You will be working in the lab ~90% of the time and play a key role in the industrialization and optimization of lab scale chemistries.
Job Requirements/Responsibilities
- Hands on experience with setup and programming of Mass flow controllers
- Experience with vacuum systems and control
- Experience with Labview programming
- Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively in a team while also able to work independently.
- Good oral and written communication
- Demonstrated academic or industrial performance
- Must be detail-oriented and able to follow specific directions on experiments, processes
- Keep a detailed lab notebook
- Report to senior members of team to update on that day’s/week’s tasks
Minimum Qualifications
- Associates degree in Instrumentation Technology or BS/BA in Materials Science, Physics, Chemistry, or Engineering
- MS a plus
- Hands-on research and industrial experience ideal
- Experience with setup of process instrumentation such as mass flow controllers, serial / digital communications, labview programming
