Dr. Sivalingam Sivananthan, Chief Executive Officer and President of EPIR Technologies

Dr. Sivananthan received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Physics from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a B.S. degree in Physics from the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka. He has been a pioneer in the growth of single-crystal II-VI materials on silicon for twenty years and proposed their use for the manufacture of ultrahigh-efficiency single-crystal II-VI on silicon photovoltaic solar cells fifteen years ago. Dr. Sivananthan founded EPIR Technologies in 1997 for the commercialization of MBE-grown CdTe on silicon (CdTe/Si) for defense infrared night vision applications and the development of ultrahigh-efficiency photovoltaic solar cells. EPIR grew over the past decade out of his basement into a world-class research and development organization and, more recently, a manufacturing enterprise. Dr. Sivananthan also holds the positions of Liberal Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and Director of the Microphysics Laboratory (MPL) at UIC. He was a leading pioneer in the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth of HgCdTe, including the first molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growths of HgCdTe on CdZnTe and on CdTe/Si, today the leading substrates for HgCdTe growth. Under his guidance, in 2008 EPIR achieved the high-yield growth of high-quality CdTe/Si and other II-VI materials on Si under conditions suitable for manufacturing and commercialization, both for defense infrared applications and for ultrahigh-efficiency solar cells. His efforts and foresight have helped make HgCdTe grown by MBE the material of choice for advanced infrared detectors and focal plane arrays, and he has made EPIR the sole commercial vendor of CdTe/Si and HgCdTe/CdTe/Si. Now he is leading the Company toward an equally important commercial position in the solar photovoltaics industry with low-cost ultrahigh-efficiency solar cells for applications with concentrator photovoltaics systems and in space. His continuing contributions to the field of II-VI semiconductor research and development are evidenced by his over 200 refereed publications, his numerous invited talks and his perennial co-chairmanship of the “U.S. Workshop on the Physics and Chemistry of II-VI Materials”. His honors include a “Friend of the Night” award by the U.S. Army Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate in 2005 for his leadership in this field. He serves as a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Infrared and Millimeter Waves, the National Advisory Board for the Nanotechnology Core Facility, Advisory Board for Illinois College of Technology, and as an editor of the Proceedings of the US Workshop on the Physics and Chemistry of II-VI Materials.