Dr. Randhir Thakur to head SunFab

SANTA CLARA, USA: Applied Materials Inc. announced that Randhir Thakur is re-joining the company as senior vice president and GM of Strategic Operations, initially helping to lead operations for the company’s Applied SunFab Thin Film Line for producing solar photovoltaic (PV) modules.

Dr. Thakur was most recently executive vice president of technology and fab operations at SanDisk Corp., the world’s largest supplier of flash memory data storage products. Prior to SanDisk, he worked at Applied Materials for five years in executive roles within semiconductor product groups.

“As head of Strategic Operations, Randhir will focus on one of Applied’s biggest opportunities, the ramp of our SunFab solar production lines at customer sites,” said Mike Splinter, president and CEO of Applied Materials. “His prior experience with Applied enables him to hit the ground running, and his global operations experience and ability to collaborate across multiple product groups will be a great asset to our SunFab team.”

Reporting to Splinter, Thakur will co-lead a new organization named SunFab Operations with Dr. Mark Pinto, senior vice president, chief technology officer and general manager of Applied’s Energy and Environmental Solutions group. Together, they will be responsible for executing Applied’s roadmap to lower the cost-per-watt of electricity produced from PV modules and to establish the SunFab line as the fastest time-to-volume, thin film PV solution in the market, as well as developing this innovative platform for possible extension into future production line businesses.

“With strong demand for Applied’s revolutionary solar production technology, SunFab is gaining traction very fast and our global teams are ramping multiple SunFab lines around the world,” said Dr. Pinto. “Randhir will make a strong addition to our solar team as Applied delivers on our commitment to substantially lower the cost-per-watt of solar PV.”

Thakur received his B.S. degree (with honors) in electronics and telecommunications engineering from the Regional Engineering College, Kurukshetra, India, as well as M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, and University of Oklahoma, respectively.