Electronics Engineer, Materials characterization, Software Developer

Joseph A. del Cueto, Denver Metro, CO *****

Home: 303-***-****; Mobile: 970-***-****, ******@*****.***

Summary of Expertise

Engineering, research & development (R&D) and manufacturing in solar energy industry

Reliability and accelerated stress testing of solar energy modules/arrays, certification testing

Developed Engineering Test Stations: in-line/off-line electrical/electronic and optical QA tools

Developed software for engineering/science applications using Visual Studio, C#, C, VB6, VB, assembler, OOP, Visual Basic for Applications, FORTRAN 77, Visa

Developed data acquisition systems (DAS) for process control & test stations

Certification Testing and Evaluation to IEC Standards, 61646, 61215, 61853

Data Science-Statistical Analysis Expertise: Excel/VBA, MS Access, JMP, SAS, R, SQL (Oracle 11g), MS SQL Server 2008, Teradata

Numerical Analysis: linear and non-linear multi-variable regression, optimization, matrix inversion, filtering, Fourier analysis, splines, statistical analysis code & algorithm development

Electronic, electrical, optical, structural characterization expertise: devices and materials

Process Integration, Vacuum Systems, Laser scribing/patterning, CVD, PVD

2012-2016: Consultant, Contractor, Reliability Engineer, Data Analyst

Projects: Pacific Gas & Electric, NuvoSun, Stion, Ampulse; San Francisco, CA; Denver CO areas.

Performed data analytics for validation and quantified uncertainty of PG&E 20-year electric load forecast, using statistical analysis: R, Excel/VBA, Teradata, SAS.

Designed experiments for accelerated stress testing, reliability and stabilization of solar product. Developed automated failure mode and numerical data analysis through code, device modeling.

Developed test engineering tools & design of electronic devices.

Software tools with: Excel VBA, JMP, SQL, R, MS SQL Server 2008, SAS, Teradata

Solar product design and development of thin-film Si cells.

Developed VBA code for automated device analysis and detection of failure modes/mechanisms from measurements (I-V, C-V, Lock-in Thermography).

2011-2012: Abound Solar, Loveland, CO, Senior Product Scientist

Developed solar product performance improvements and tests through design of new metrics, stabilization testing, and failure analysis via numerical analysis of I-V characteristics.

Developed new test tools: capacitance-voltage (C-V) and current-voltage (I-V) measurements, for product performance, used Excel/VBA code programming.

Developed numerical analysis code for automated data analysis: VBA, C#.

Reliability, stress and certification testing of products: IEC61646, design of new experiments, data analysis for potential induced degradation and metal contact corrosion.

1997-2011: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, Senior Scientist

Developed test tools continuous outdoor PV module electrical performance and stability testing.

Designed reliability engineering tests: accelerated environmental stress, certification testing (IEC 61215, 61646, 61853), real-time outdoor measurements, performance & energy yield.

Developed test stations: current-voltage (I-V), capacitance-voltage (C-V), High-Voltage Stress Test tools; used Excel/VBA, Visual Studio, VB6, OOP to program instrument control code.

Developed VB6 and Excel/VBA code for MS Access database creation, automated data analysis.

Developed data acquisition systems for continuous monitoring PV modules/arrays plus Solar & ambient resource assessment data acquisition and sensors; incorporated and programmed Campbell data loggers; developed multi-tasking components, multi-threaded application code (VB6) for test tool hardware control.

1995-1997: Lockheed-Martin Littleton, CO, Staff Scientist

R&D of thin-film PV modules on lightweight flexible substrates for space-array applications.

Developed Process for zinc and aluminum oxide coatings by reactive magnetron sputtering.

Developed of monolithic integration of PV modules using Nd:YAG laser scribing.

Developed Excel/VBA code for automated data analysis, failure analysis metrics.

1993-1994: SAGE Corp., Piscataway, NJ, Scientist.

R&D of all solid-state electrochromic lithium based structures: Reactive magnetron sputtering process development of metal oxide (ITO, ZnO, WO3, V2O5, TiO2, SiO2) thin film materials. Characterization of devices/materials: spectrophotometry cyclic voltammetry, XRD, SEM, EDX.

1991-1993: Advanced Photovoltaic Systems, Princeton, NJ, Senior Scientist.

Developed process for zinc oxide by reactive magnetron sputtering, for PV modules.

Wrote specifications acceptance test for and used large-area sputter (Airco G-59) coater.

Developed process for tin oxide and silica layers by atmospheric pressure CVD.

Implemented control system for MRC 900 series magnetron sputtering system using PLC.

1991: Applied Films Lab Inc., Boulder, CO, Staff Scientist.

Process development of indium tin oxide thin films by reactive DC magnetron sputtering for display applications.

Developed & implemented optical model thru software for reflectance and transmittance of multi-layer thin film stacks fully implementing angular dependence and extinction coefficient.

1985-1990: Glasstech Solar Inc. (GSI), CO, Senior Scientist, Project Manager

Project Manager for start-up and assembly of solar module fabrication plant in Gurgaon, India.

Supervised software department: designed and developed embedded micro-controller (Intel 8044/8051) distributed control system for process control and data acquisition system, using RS485 high-speed serial communications; wrote software in assembly and C.

Optimized process for fabrication of thin-film silicon solar modules: CVD, sputtering, laser scribing, test development for in-line product QA of electrical electronic properties.

Developed entire characterization lab and tools for testing solar/PV cells’ and modules’ quality.

Designed and developed 3-axes, Nd:YAG laser scribe tool for patterning of solar modules.

Education

Masters Physics State University of New York at Stony Brook, N.Y.

Bachelors Physics Columbia University, N.Y.C., N.Y.

Professional Organizations

Member of American Physical Society since 1985.

Languages

English-Spanish, bilingual, bicultural

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