Request Expert

Expert has 20 + years of experience in technical and business aspects of nanomanufacturing.

He has been involved in the implementation of thin film technologies in various devices such as semiconductors, sensors, magnetic recording heads, displays (OLEDS,TFT),HB-LED, photovoltaics (CIGS,..) EUV etc. He has a good understanding of industry practices, and an extensive network of contacts.
He has a thorough understanding of unit processes ( PVD, MOCVD,PECVD,ALD, IBD,MBE,PLD,RIE,IBE, CMP, Litho,...) in terms of performance & limitations of commercially available equipment. He has also worked on process integration, and its implications for device performance, yield, uniformity, cost structure, equipment uptime, fab utilization etc,..

Expert has extensive experience working with industrial and financial actors concerning M&A and investment-related due diligence, technology roadmapping, evaluation of manufacturability of new devices ( assessment of business plan,IP evaluation), competitive benchmarking, development of an industrialization strategy, etc....

Expert worked on several aspects of ALD, including:

1) Equipment design : Expert has designed and simulated (CFD, thermal) several high throughput ALD reactors.
He has a thorough understanding of gas flow patterns, which leads him to propose innovative design features . He has a good understanding of the IP in the field (assessment of possible infringement) and has also created IP (see e.g. US patent 707118 B1). ALD equipment designed by expert has been in use for years in a leading high volume manufacturing environment.
Design of precursor trap to optimize pump lifetime.

2) Process Development & Continuous improvement :
Expert has been involved in process development & continuous improvement of ALD dielectrics, including electrical ( C-V probe), optical and structural characterization of films
Uniformity, throughput, step coverage micro contamination optimization.

3) Expert has been involved in business related subjects relative to ALD, including : marketing, sales support, technical due diligence, technology portfolio analysis, road-mapping, technology transfer. He has a good understanding of industry practices, and an extensive network of contacts.

Expert has 20+ years of experience in ion-based etching. Areas of expertise include:

1) Equipment Design and Operation
Expert has hands-on and managerial experience in ion source and ICP reactor design, operation and maintenance, gasbox design, in-situ metrology troubleshooting of equipment malfunction

2) Process Optimization
Expert has extensive hands-on and managerial experience with process qualification, advanced process control, uniformity, repeatability optimization, process integration in an industrial context

3) Physics of the sputtering process:
Sputter yields, halogen-surface interaction, damage, redeposition, reflected neutrals,..
Expert has performed extensive research on beam-surface interaction, Molecular dynamics modeling

4)Marketing, sales support, technical due diligence, technology portfolio analysis, roadmapping, technology transfer. He has a good understanding of industry practices, and an extensive network of contacts.

Expert has more than 15 years of experience and in-depth knowledge on metal and insulator deposition by sputter based deposition techniques. Areas of expertise include :

1)Development, of industrial PVD equipment, process engineering and continuous improvement for production-level applications in several industries such as semiconductor (Cu, Ta, TaN ) RF-MEMS & wireless ( AlN FBAR, Pt/Ti metallization for), data storage (GMR, TMR, high moment, Al2O3 etc), EUV, CIGS photovoltaics ( Mo, TCO,CIGS), etc.
Expert was leading development of the first generation GMR deposition tool and process for hard disk manufacturing at CVC products. This equipment took about 80 % marketshare in 18months, in an application that is generally considered to be one of the first industrial applications of nanotechnology (See e.g. 2007 Physics Nobelprize press release)

2)Thorough knowledge and modeling experience of fundamental physics of plasma formation, plasma surface interaction and film formation process ( 20 yrs experience ; 70+ publications including 16 invited reviews). Hands on experience with : Mass spectrometry, in-situ sensors,emission spectroscopy, Langmuir Probe, Molecular Dynamics, Particle In Cell, FEA,..

3)Extensive experience qualifying, troubleshooting and continuously improving PVD process in a manufacturing environment. Uniformity, repeatability, equipment malfunction, contamination, material property optimization,... etc. On-site crisis resolution (root cause analysis,...

4)Marketing, sales support, technical due diligence, technology portfolio analysis, road-mapping, technology transfer. He is well respected in industry, and has given several invited talks at leading conferences (SVC,AVS) on the subject.He has a good understanding of industry practices, and an extensive network of contacts.

Expert is recognized as one of the world leading experts in magnetic thin film processing:

1) Processing : Expert has been involved in industrial implementation of several magnetic thin film materials such as AMR, GMR,NOL-GMR, TMR, hard bias, high moment, for applications such as magnetic recording heads, magnetic field sensors, IC-integrated magnetic coils, MRAM. Every single hard disk head manufacturer uses or has used one or more magnetic film deposition or etch process to which expert has contributed.

2) Device Design : Expert has had several years experience performing electrical and magnetic device characterization, leading to IP generation ( several US patents on magnetic devices).

4) Science : Expert has been very active in the scientific community,with numerous papers and conference contributions.
Expert has thorough knowledge of preparation and metrology of magnetic thin films. He has thought a course on magnetic film processing at semizone.com, web based training in association with Stanford.

Expert has been involved in the development and operation of high vacuum and ultra high vacuum systems for over 20 years, from hands on experience building R&D systems to management of an engineering team building industrial systems. Specific areas of expertise involve:

1) Design and Engineering of System :
Materials & components ( O-rings, valves, feedthroughs ..) pumping schemes ( cryo, turbo, ion, getter, water,..), bake-out procedures gauges(ion gauge, baratron(R), QMS,..) control systems ( PLC, profibus,..)

2) Implementation of (U)HV in a manufacturing environment : feasibility, best practices ( training of technicians ), comprehensive contamination control ( gas purification systems,..).

3) Computer aided design of gas injection systems and showerheads. (CFD, DSMC)

Expert has extensive experience modeling ballistic, rarefied and continuum gas transport using CFD Monte Carlo techniques.

He developed several Monte Carlo codes, including a 3D dsmc code on unstructured grids, fully compatible with CAD interfacing, specially adapted for the application on vacuum process equipment. He has a thorough hands-on knowledge of state of the art CFD ( finite volume techniques).

He has performed analysis and design of gas flow in many systems, including ALD, CVD, PVD, MBE,PLD,etc... He is well respected in industry, and has given several invited talks at leading conferences (SVC,AVS) on the subject.

A VC fund was considering an investment in a vacuum process equipment company and contacted the expert in their due diligence process. In a series of telephone conversations he provided a second opinion on the background of the principals, the market sizing, and the technical risks involved in the project. He also performed a critical assessment of relative strengths and weaknesses with respect to the competition.A manufacturer of electronic components received a new piece of manufacturing equipment. When installed in the fab, the equipment was not meeting its specs. After 3 weeks of trial and error no improvement was obtained. As the end of the quarter loomed, further delay of the acceptance would jeopardize quarterly revenue numbers for the supplier.
The expert starts working with the engineering staff to build a logical tree pointing to the root cause of the problem. This leads to a hypothesis being formulated within hours after contacting the expert. The expert travels to the customer site, and assist customer personnel to perform the tests that prove this hypothesis to be true, leading to immediate issue resolution and equipment sign off. Researchers at an independent research organization have made some basic discoveries that they consider to be of importance for future applications. Expert works with the technology valorization structure within the organization to : 1) Assist in generating a vision for industrial fabrication of the invention. Provide a second opinion on input of equipment suppliers. 2) Assist in generating a coherent IP portfolio 3) Identify gaps in the present state of knowledge and suggests paths to bridge these gaps.