The Indian Connection at HuntPerovskite, No 1 Perovskite Linked Patents Firm

US based Hunt Perovskite Technologies (HPT) announced yesterday that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted HPT two additional patents related to its ongoing work in the development of printed metal halide perovskite photovoltaic (PV) devices. While the first patent (US10,907,050) relates to HPT’s invention of an ink to print nickel oxide as a high-performance interfacial layer in perovskite PV devices, the second patent (US10,916,712) relates to HPT’s invention of a printed, durable carbon electrode for planar architecture perovskite PV devices.

HPT currently owns the largest perovskite PV patent portfolio in the United States and one of the largest in the world. With these newest additions, HPT now has 24 patents granted by the USPTO and over 45 additional patents by various foreign patent offices, along with dozens of pending applications in four key areas, including: Materials-Level Durability, Device-Level Durability, Ink Chemistry and Processing, and Device Testing/Metrology.

HPT is the only known perovskite solar PV technology developer that has succeeded in demonstrating high durability under accelerated lifetime testing for non-hermetically sealed devices and unprotected perovskite materials, while maintaining respectable light-to-power conversion efficiencies.

“Our technology development has always been focused on improving durability and reducing manufacturing costs through ink-based printing, and it is gratifying to see that our efforts continue to be validated both by government agencies and our peers in the scientific community,” said Michael Irwin, HPT chief technology officer. “Our expanding patent portfolio is a major asset as we continue to seek new collaboration opportunities with partners and investors to help make highly-durable, low-cost perovskite PV devices a commercial reality.”

Hunt also has a key Indian-origin  member in its leadership team, in the form of Vivek V. Dhas, Project Technology Manager.  A Master of Science in Physics from Ahmednagar Collage, Ahmednagar, India and a PhD in Physics from University of Pune, National Chemical Laboratory with a focus on metal oxide-based nanomaterials and their application for solar energy technology, Dhas manages the company’s R&D operations. He joined Hunt in 2013 as a senior device engineer. Prior to Hunt, he was working as a post-doc at University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) on dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) technology based on novel organic molecules. To date, Dhas has several U.S. as well as international patents and publications on DSSC and metal halide perovskite solar cell technology.

Scott Burton leads the firm as CEO