Calvin Fuller (left) at work.
Calvin Souther Fuller (Chicago, May 25, 1902 - Vero Beach, Florida), October 28, 1994 was an American natural and chemical expert. He is known as co-inventor of the silicon solar cell in the early 1950s. biography
Fuller visited the University of Chicago where he obtained his PhD (Ph.D.) in Physical Chemistry in 1929. In 1930, he joined AT & T's Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill where he remained affiliated for 37 years until his retirement in 1967.
Together with his Bell Labs colleagues Gerald Pearson and Daryl Chapin, he was at the base of the first practical solar cell made of silicon. In doing so he continued the work of Russell Ohl, the Bell Labs semiconductor pioneer. Ohl had discovered the principle of the solar cell in addition to the pn junction in 1939, by chance, by patenting in 1941.
Its main achievement was the development of a method of producing highly pure silicon by removing all impurities through a special melting process. By then dusting the silicon with drill he obtained a semiconductor material that could make well functioning solar cells. In 1954, at Bell Labs, their solar cell was first publicly demonstrated. Due to the high production costs, solar cells are initially used only in space.
During World War II, Fuller, on behalf of the US government, traveled by train throughout the United States as a major research of synthetic rubber, due to the threat of natural rubber winnings abroad. Recognition
For his contributions in the development of the solar cell, Fuller received some major awards, including:
In 2008, he was co-starred with Pearson and Chapin in the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
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