Kethinni Chittibabu
Ph.D., Co-founder and CTO

Ambient co-founder Dr. Kethinni Chittibabu is a renowned material scientist with specific interest on opto-electronic properties of materials and related devices. Throughout his 30 year career, he has leveraged his uniquely interdisciplinary expertise in synthetic material chemistry, device physics and highly specialized opto-electronic and photovoltaic material development to advance photovoltaic innovation.

Dr. Chittibabu takes a holistic approach to photovoltaic science that spans from material chemistry and device function to manufacturing and employing printable technologies. He understands why PV technology works, what can be done to improve performance and how to push the boundaries of conventional approaches to advance cutting edge solutions.

In the case of Ambient’s novel energy harvesting technology, he looked at the chemistry employed in legacy dye sensitized solar cells and determined at the molecular level what had been limiting performance in order to create an entirely new materials system. He called upon his two decades of research into printable photovoltaic applications to inform Ambient’s uniquely scalable and cost competitive PV cell printing technology — including how seemingly ancillary factors like substrate materials and adhesives affect performance.
His understanding of how to leverage science to address critical market needs and develop commercially viable product applications continues to benefit Ambient’s customer partners every day as they design and deploy low light PV powered devices for the first time.