2019 Paul Panayotatos Endowed Scholarship in Sustainable Energy will be awarded to ECE graduate student Yuxuan Li.
Yuxuan Li is a PhD student working with Professor Yicheng Lu in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He will receive $5,000 in support of his project “Transparent MgZnO Based High Voltage Thin Film Transistor for Renewable Energy”. His research focuses on developing, fabricating, and analyzing the prototype of a transparent MZO-based HVTFT device on glass. In contrast to the conventional state-of-the-art SiC and GaN power transistors that require epitaxial growth on the lattice-matched single crystalline substrates at high temperature, the TFT technology is particularly beneficial to the PV system on glass as it offers low-temperature process (≤400°C in this work) and low material and fabrication cost. By developing and optimizing the MZO HVTFT on glass, the PV system efficiency can be improved because of higher on-currents, and the overall system cost can be reduced from both the production and installation aspects due to the compactness and small size of the distributed micro-inverter topology. As a result, more interests will attract to the BIPV system from the market and rapid development will happen, leading to wider use of solar energy in the society. He received his BS degree at UESTC in 2016.
Paul Panayotatos Endowed Scholarship was established in memory of Professor Paul Panayotatos who served for 30 years as a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The Scholarship is awarded to graduate students demonstrating academic excellence and pursuing an advanced degree in the sustainable energy areas including renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy conversion or a related area.
Congratulations Yuxuan!