Obituary of Yuan-Min Li

Dr. Yuan-Min Li

1958-2019

With great sorrow, we share this sad news: our beloved husband and father Yuan-Min Li completed his life’s journey and passed away at Princeton Medical Center on the morning of June 9th, 2019, after battling advanced cancer for months.

Words cannot express the deep pain and emptiness we feel from this great loss. Besides being an extraordinary man with all his accomplishment in photovoltaics, Yuan-Min was a loving husband and father, the most reliable and trustworthy friend, and our mentor and soulmate.

He told us just days before his departure, that he was to start a new journey, a journey of love. We know he is now free of pain, and we send love from all of us, wherever he is!

Xiaoping Zhang, Dan Lee & Ken Lee; Residents of Princeton Township since 2004

From Hanergy:

We are sad to announce that Dr. Yuanmin Li, our chief scientist and the co-CTO of Hanergy Thin Film Power Group, passed away on June 9th, 2019 in Princeton, NJ, USA, at the age of sixty.

Dr. Yuanmin Li was born in Beijing on October 11th, 1958. He graduated from the Department of Modern Physics, the University of Science and Technology of China in 1982. He obtained his master’s degree in physics and Ph.D. in applied physics from Harvard University, in 1984 and 1989, respectively. During his graduate study, he worked as a teaching assistant at the Department of Applied Physics and then a lecturer at the Department of Applied Mathematics. After graduation, he held a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Applied Physics at Harvard University for one year. His industrial career in photovoltaics started in 1990. He had been working in numerous prodigious PV companies such as Solarex, BP Solar, AmPro Corporation, Energy Photovoltaics Inc., Terra Solar Inc., Renewable Energy Solutions Inc., and GS-Solar (Fujian) Energy, Co., Ltd., as senior scientist, process director, technical director, R&D VP, co-CTO, co-founder, and president. He also was an active member of thin-film partnership program of the Department of Energy, USA. Dr. Yuanmin Li joined Hanergy in 2010 as a vice chairman and co-CTO of Hanergy Thin Film Power Group, Ltd.

Dr. Li devoted his entire career in developing thin-film photovoltaic materials and technologies from hydrogenated amorphous Si and its alloys, nano-crystalline Si, CIGS, perovskite, single and multijunction solar cells and thin-film modules. For more than 30 years, his expertise covered the deposition and characterization of thin-film materials, design, synthesis, analysis, and optimization of photovoltaic devices, manufacturing of large-area photovoltaic modules, displays, optoelectronic devices and materials. He has accomplished a number of silicon-based thin-film solar cell records: first ever single-junction hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cell with the open-circuit voltage (VOC) exceeding 1.0V; especially wide band-gap hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC:H) materials and its solar cell with VOC reaching 1.03V (world record at that time); greater than 8% conversion efficiency of a high performance nano-crystalline silicon solar cells deposited by a single-chamber radio-frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (RF-PECVD); the first stable efficiency greater than

9% obtained by double-junction amorphous silicon/amorphous silicon germanium solar module on 1 m2 glass substrate with initial efficiency above 11%; the DC discharge asymmetric etching for large-area nano-crystalline silicon deposition; single-chamber large-area multi-junction thin-film silicon photovoltaic module production with highest stable conversion efficiency at lowest cost.

During his career, he had filed more than 100 patents both in China and abroad, nearly 40 have been granted; published 67 papers in academic journals and international conferences.

During his Hanergy times starting from 2010, Dr. Li has done remarkable performance in both R&D and mass production of hydrogenated amorphous silicon alloys, CIGS, silicon heterojunction (SHJ), and perovskite technologies, etc. As the leader of the Hanergy Chengdu R&D Center from November of 2011, Dr. Li had made many breakthroughs in mass production of hydrogenated amorphous silicon germanium tandem solar modules, BIPV, agricultural greenhouse application, and amorphous/nano-microcrystalline silicon thin-film tandem solar cell technologies. In particular, the successful application of silicon-based alloy thin films to high-efficiency SHJ solar cells has produced the record cell efficiency in full-6-inch wafer in China in 2018, and the record cell was made from the pilot production line.

Dr. Li was diligent, hard-working, and eager to learn and sensitive to new technologies. Dr. Li actively promoted research on perovskite solar cell technology and played a key role in establishing a team in Chengdu R&D Center in June 2018. Promising progress has been made in large-area perovskite solar cell and perovskite/SHJ tandem solar cell developments.

Dr. Yuanmin Li, as a leading scientist with numerous outstanding contributions in thin-film photovoltaics, an excellent leader and beloved mentor to young engineers and researchers, a dear friend and colleague, will be long remembered. The passing away of Dr. Yuanmin Li is a great loss to his family, his friends, and colleagues, and the PV communities. However, Dr. Li’s vision and passion of PV, his dedication, work ethic, focus, and no-nonsense leadership will inspire us to strive for greater progress in PV technology and industry.

中国光伏专委会 世界著名硅基薄膜太阳电池研究专家，汉能首席科学家，首批汉能院士，汉能薄膜发电集团异质结高端装备产业公司联席首席技术官李沅民博士因病医治无效，于美国东部时间2019年6月9日早8点30分，在美国新泽西州普林斯顿市逝世，享年60岁。 李沅民博士于1958年10月11日出生于北京，1982年毕业于中国科技大学近代物理学系，分别于1984年及1989年在哈佛大学取得物理学硕士学位及应用物理学博士学位，留学期间担任哈佛大学应用物理系助教及应用数学系讲师。毕业后在哈佛大学应用物理系任职博士后一年时间，之后于1990年至2008年先后在Solarex、AmPro Corporation、Energy Photovoltaics,Inc.(EPV)、Terra Solar Inc、Renewable Energy Solutions Inc、行者太阳能集团有限公司、福建钧石能源有限公司等多家光伏公司任资深高级研究员、制程工艺总监、技术总监、研发副总裁、总裁兼首席技术官、联合创始人兼总裁等职务。受汉能集团邀约，李沅民博士于2010年加入汉能，担任汉能薄膜发电集团董事会副主席兼联席首席技术官一职。 李沅民博士长期致力于光伏薄膜技术的研发，在薄膜材料制备、表征及沉积技术、太阳能光伏器件之设计、合成、分析和优化、大面积光伏组件制造和相关工艺技术、显示器、光电器件和材料拥有超过30年经验，并创造多项硅基薄膜太阳电池记录：首次通过实验得出非晶硅单结太阳电池开路电压Voc大于1.0V，宽禁带非晶硅碳太阳电池开路电压Voc大于1.03V，创下了当时世界纪录；1992年-1996年，在实验室条件下，用单腔室射频等离子体增强化学汽相淀积（RF-PECVD）展示高性能的纳米硅电池，单腔室纳米硅电池效率>8%；第一个在1平方英尺玻璃衬底上获得稳定转换效率大于9%的非晶硅/非晶硅锗双结光伏组件，初始转换率大于11%；发明直流放电非对称刻蚀的大面积纳米硅均匀沉积方法；最高稳定转换效率及最低成本的单腔室大面积多结薄膜硅光伏组件生产技术及其产业化。目前在海内外已获受理的专利多达上百项，其中已授权的就有近40项。在国际学术刊物及会议上发表的论文论著有67篇。自2009年加入汉能以后，李沅民博士先后在非晶硅、非晶硅锗、CIGS、HIT、钙钛矿技术领域进行研发和量产工作，并取得了骄人的成绩，特别是，李沅民博士带领团队将硅基合金薄膜技术应用于高效硅异质结电池(SHJ）创造了2018年该类太阳电池中国最高效率记录。 李沅民博士一生勤勤恳恳、兢兢业业，他为薄膜光伏技术领域的科学研究和光伏技术研发以及培养年轻一代光伏人才，奉献了自己的毕生精力；他的逝世使我们失去了一位令人尊敬的好导师，中国光伏失去了一位赤子，是世界光伏科学技术领域的重大损失。李沅民博士对科学事业不懈追求和为中国光伏事业献身的崇高精神永远值得我们学习和缅怀 ！