The awards were presented at the Semicon Europa Executive Summit in October 2011, hosted by Semi, an industry trade body serving the manufacturing supply chains for the microelectronic, display and PV industries.
Task force leader, Christian Prischmann, from UIbrich, a specialist metals provider to the PV industry, was the recipient of the Standards Leadership award. Prischmann was recognized for his efficient leadership in developing two standards: Semi PV18 and Semi PV19. These establish common characteristics, parameters and test methods for the tabbing ribbon used to interconnect solar cells into strings.
There are many different sources for connector ribbon available in the PV industry and each ribbon supplier has historically used its own test method to verify ribbon characteristics and ribbon quality. Using Semi PV19, ribbon suppliers and PV module manufacturers can verify the ribbon characteristics and quality, ensuring that ribbons manufactured to the same specification will have comparable properties.
“We are pleased to recognize Mr. Christian Prischmann for his significant industry accomplishments,” said Heinz Kundert, president of SEMI Europe.
“I very much appreciate receiving the Semi Leadership Award and it was a great experience to work with the PV ribbon task force,” said Prischmann. “I am thankful for all the help we received from Semi. Their support and help was one of the reasons why the PV Ribbon Task Force could create standards. Cost reduction and standardization will be mandatory to make PV a successful market now and in the future.”
The European SEMI award went to Dr. Tibor Pavelka, CEO of Semilab Co. Ltd. who is a producer of metrology equipment for the characterization of semiconductor and PV materials. As one of the founders of Semilab, Dr. Pavelka was rewarded for proving that a European company, in the field of metrology, is ready to compete with US and Asian competitors.
Semilab’s portfolio of electrical material characterization techniques, such as DLTS, µPCD carrier lifetime measurements, have considerably been widened to the current range of 32 product lines including optical techniques. Semilab is reported to be currently the most successful metrology company in Europe.
Dr. Pavelka became CEO of Semilab in 1995 and since then he has led several task forces and contributed to the development of several approaches related to control, inspection and metrology equipment. He also extended the application of a number of semiconductor measurement technologies to the PV industry. Earlier this year, Semilab completed its acquisition of Tordivel Solar, an inspection/metrology tool company.
Regarding Dr. Pavelka, Kundert said he “has made impressive contributions to advances in technology. We are pleased to recognize him for his significant accomplishments.”
The European Semi Award was established more than two decades ago to recognize individuals and teams who have made a significant contribution to the European semiconductor and related industries.
