Udo Römer

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Current research

I am currently a DECRA fellow in the School of Photovoltaics and Renewable Energy Engineering, working on multi-junction (MJ) silicon (Si) solar cells for biomedical applications.

For this project, I am aiming to fabricate multi-junction silicon photodiode arrays for use in brain machine interfaces. The project will encompass the design, fabrication, and optimisation of tunnel-junctions in Si as a key building block for multi-junction photodiodes. Si microfabrication processes will be developed to structure these photodiodes in arrays of many "pixels" with sizes smaller than 100 micrometres. The purpose of the project is to replace electrode arrays in retinal implants or brain-machine-interfaces with optically powered photodiode arrays, thus potentially enabling smaller and safer implants for restoring function in disabled people.

Teaching

I am supervising second to fourth year students in the Vertically-Integrated Project (VIP) “Mini Solar”, a project based course at UNSW, hold by Professor Alison Lennon, aiming to teach students to design and fabricate millimetre-sized PV devices that can provide a continuous source of power for Internet-of Things (IoT) sensors and medical implants by charging an on-chip Li-ion battery. As subproject leader (PV Device) I organise the design, fabrication and modelling of the miniature Si solar cell arrays.

Biography

I obtained my Diplom in Physics from the Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Germany and worked towards my PhD at the Institute for Solar Energy Research Hameln (ISFH) in Hamelin, Germany, under supervision of Professor Niels Peter Harder, Professor Robby Peibst and Professor Tobias Wietler. My thesis research focussed on ion implanted, large area back-contact Si solar cells and on highly carrier selective poly-Si contacts for c-Si solar cells.

After receiving my PhD in electrical engineering from the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover in Germany I moved to Sydney, Australia to work with Professor Alison Lennon at UNSW on inkjet and laser patterning processes for plated contacts for large area back-contacted Si solar cells and together with Professor Bram Hoex, on doped poly-Si passivating contacts. In 2018 I started my DFG (German Research Foundation) Research Fellowship at UNSW on inkjet printed doping of poly-Si contacts and in 2020 I joined the research Groups of A/Prof. Nicholas Ekins-Daukes and Dr. Stephen Bremner, where I worked on fabrication processes for III-V and III-V on Si solar cells.

Contact: u.romer@unsw.edu.au