Dr. Ashok Sood is President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Magnolia Solar Inc. He is a 30-year industry veteran with experience that includes developing and managing solar cells, optical, and optoelectronics technology products for several major corporations, including Lockheed-Martin, BAE Systems, Loral, Honeywell, and Tyco International. Dr. Sood was instrumental in development and managed optical and optoelectronics technology for these companies as a manager in the optoelectronics group and worked to develop ribbon silicon solar cells, CdTe, CdS and HgCdTe, GaN/AlGaN, ZnO semiconductor devices. Many of the technologies and products developed have become large product lines at these companies.
Dr Sood was involved in design and development of solar cells at Mobil-Tyco Solar Energy Corporation now under the management of RWESchott Solar. He contributed to design and development of Silicon Ribbon solar cells and was instrumental in design improvements to enhance the solar cell efficiency of EFG ribbon solar cells. Dr Sood was also Senior Engineer at Tyco Laboratories, Inc., (Now Tyco International) where he built and set up optical and electronic measurement facilities for silicon p-n junction solar cells and developed processes for building high efficiency solar cells for space applications. This work led to a joint venture with Kyoto Ceramics in Japan.
Dr. Sood has also led the development of optoelectronics and imaging devices using CdTe, HgCdTe, GaN and ZnO for various defense applications, including EO, IR and UV imaging, secure communications, and self-protection applications.
Dr. Sood has led the efforts resulting in DARPA sponsorship of several projects. He has also led various industry and University teams bridging centers of excellence for material sciences across the United States.
Dr. Sood received his Ph.D. and M.S. in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and has an M.S. and a B.S. in Physics (Honors) from Delhi University in India.
Magnolia Solar was founded in 2008 to develop and commercialize revolutionary new thin film solar cell technologies that employ nanostructured materials and designs. Magnolia's transformational approach to thin film solar cells is based upon breakthrough discoveries in nanostructured solar cell design and optical coatings engineering. With this approach, Magnolia is aiming to dramatically enhance the power-generating capability of photovoltaic systems by developing low cost, thin film technology that delivers unprecedented levels of electrical energy per unit area. Magnolia is developing a variety of thin film solar cell products with enhanced performance for both civilian and military applications, as we believe that different material technologies can service distinct niches within the solar photovoltaic market.
Nanostructured materials enable new device concepts that can radically enhance the operation of traditional semiconductor structures. Magnolia has unique insights into these advanced device designs and intellectual property associated with the nanomaterials necessary to build them. Both higher current and voltage outputs are expected from thin film solar cells that combine Magnolia's exclusive material structure with nanoengineered optical coatings that can scatter normally incident light laterally into the device. Magnolia's technology also has the ability to capture a larger part of the solar spectrum to produce high efficiency solar cells, and incorporates a unique nanostructure-based antireflection coating technology to further increase the solar cell's efficiency, thereby reducing the cost per watt. Magnolia Solar technology targets electrical power generation applications, such as power for electrical grids and distributed power applications ranging from commercial and residential lighting to specialized military applications.