GSA Silicon Series | Boston Speakers

Dr. Jalinous Esfandyari

Jay Esfandyari has more than 20 years of industry experience in Semiconductor Technology, Integrated Circuits Fabrication Processes, MEMS development and fabrication, and strategic MEMS market and business development.

In the capacity of MEMS Product Marketing Manager at STMicroelectronics, Jay Esfandyari has developed new markets for MEMS products and achieved multi-million dollar business opportunities.

In his previous roles, Jay worked closely with customers to develop custom MEMS products, developed models to describe the physics of defect generation in silicon wafer during device fabrication processes, created solutions to perform analysis and computer simulation to improve the quality of silicon wafers.

Jay Esfandyari holds a master's degree and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Technology of Vienna, Austria.

Peter Himes

Peter Himes has over 25 years' experience in helping start-ups and public companies establish their strategic direction and industry position. Experienced in IC and MEMS areas alike, Peter has held VP of Sales and/or Marketing positions at QuickSil, SiTime, and Winbond Corporations. Earlier in his career, Peter spent 15 years at National Semiconductor in various engineering, marketing and corporate strategy roles in National's Analog Products divisions.

Cliff Hirsch

Cliff Hirsch is the founder and publisher of Semiconductor Times, an industry-leading newsletter focused on emerging semiconductor companies and technologies. Since launching the newsletter in 1997, he has analyzed more than 1,500 semiconductor-centric startups. Cliff spent the earlier years of his career in the semiconductor industry, where he has held engineering, sales and marketing leadership positions with companies such as AMD, Cypress Semiconductor and Alliance Semiconductor.

Cliff has served as an advisor and speaker for the Global Semiconductor Alliance, Semiconductor Venture Fair, Dow Jones MicroVentures conference and TIE's Semiconductor & Manufacturing Forum. Hirsch also writes the "On The Fabless Horizon" column for the GSA, is an L.P. in several venture capital funds, and is the founder of the New England Semiconductor Council. Cliff is a graduate of Cornell University, with BSEE, MSEE, and MBA degrees.

Seong-Hyok Kim

Dr. Seong-Hyok Kim received his B.S.E. and M.S. degree at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Seoul National University in 1996 and 1998, respectively. He received his Ph. D. degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Seoul National University in 2002. His doctorate research at the Lab for Micro Sensors and Actuators (MiSA) focused on the design and the fabrication of a silicon microgyroscope operating at atmospheric pressure.

After joining LG Electronics Institute of Technology as a Senior Research Engineer in 2002, he participated in the design and fabrication of a wide variety of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices for portable electronics; an electrostatic/electromagnetic actuator for an objective lens positioning in the optical drive system, a MEMS optical switch in the optical communication system, a miniaturized and magnetically levitated linear-expansion valve for home appliances, a high-speed scanning mirror for the next generation display device, micro fluidic devices, a large-displacement micro iris actuator for a camera phone, and micro piezoelectric devices for proximity power sensing and energy harvesting.

In 2005, Dr. Kim joined the Micro Sensors and Micro Actuators Laboratory (MSMA) at Georgia Institute of Technology as a postdoctoral fellow and led the PowerMEMS research group at the MSMA lab. Since he became a Research Engineer II in 2007, Dr. Kim led the MSMA laboratory�s research projects encompassing micro sensors and actuators, nanomaterials, power passives, bio-medical microdevices and etc.

Since 2010, he is the principal research engineer in LG Electronics Mobile Communication Company and has been leading emerging core technology team including MEMS sensors.

Dr. Kim has published more than 50 peer-reviewed journal and conference articles and holds 29 Korean/International patents in the field of MEMS including power MEMS, bio MEMS, polymer MEMS, optical MEMS, and MEMS sensors and actuators.

Karen Lightman

Karen Lightman became MEMS Industry Group (MIG) managing director in June 2007. Formerly director of special projects, Karen played a pivotal role in launching MIG in January 2001. Karen is active on the worldwide MEMS conference circuit as a keynote speaker andpanelist promoting MIG's role as the leading trade association advancing MEMS across global markets. Karen manages the operations of MIG; spearheads strategic growth; and oversees sales, public relations, marketing and outreach. Karen plays a critical role in creating the content for all MIG and MIG-partner conferences, events and programming. She is instrumental in establishing and maintaining partnerships with other international organizations to advance the MEMS industry.

Karen joined MIG from Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Economic Development where she was senior policy analyst. Prior to Carnegie Mellon, Karen was senior associate at Cleveland Tomorrow, a public-private partnership, and before that, she was a program associate with the Ford Foundation.

Karen has a BA from the University of Vermont (UVM) and a MS in Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University. Karen is aboard member of the National Council of Jewish Women, Pittsburgh; secretary for her UVM alumni class; mentor at UVM's Honors College; and volunteers at the Environmental Charter School at Frick Park. Karen and her family reside in Pittsburgh, PA.

Mike Perlmutter

Mike is president of Skylight Navigation a company working with inertial sensors, inertial navigation systems, positioning technologies, satellite and Wi-Fi based location systems for underwater, land, air and space applications. In addition, Mike is working in several start-up companies that are attempting to produce commercial products incorporating MEMS sensors and optical fiber.

Prior to founding Skylight Navigation, Mike worked at Fibersense Technology, a company he co-founded in 1994 in a friendly spin-off from Northrop.

Fibersense was one of the world's leaders in advanced inertial navigation and stabilization technology. The company produced compact, solid-state fiber optic gyroscopes and MEMS based inertial measurement units found on many missile defense, optical payload, satellite and commercial applications throughout the world. In 2002 Fibersense was purchased by Northrop Grumman where Mike continued to work at the Navigation Systems Division as Director of Strategy and Planning until 2007.

Prior to founding Fibersense Technology Mike worked on the development of various gyroscopes at Raytheon and Northrop Grumman.

Mike immigrated to the United States in 1965 and entered MIT in 1969 where he was awarded three degrees in EE. Mike has published papers, given talks and authored patents on inertial sensors, GPS and navigation technology. Mike is an avid father and husband as well as an enthusiastic bicyclist, scuba diver, soccer player, hiker, skier, music lover and world traveler.

Louis Ross

Louis is President & CEO and also co-founder of Virtus Advanced Sensors. He is in charge of the global operations of Virtus, which includes Virtus` headquarters in Pittsburgh, PA in the United States, Virtus Japan KK (Tokyo) and Virtus Asia (Hong Kong). Prior to the establishment of Virtus, Mr. Ross also founded the Global Emerging Technology Institute (GETI) and currently acts as a Director and Advisor. In his position at GETI, Mr. Ross acted as an advisor to the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Asian Office of Aerospace Research & Development (AORD) and the International Technology Center- Pacific (ITC-PAC) Japan. regarding emerging technology (micro/MEMS/nanotechnology).

He is currently Chairman of the Global Semiconductor Alliance's MEMS Interest Group and is the Editor of the Commercialization section of IEEE Nanotechnology magazine. Mr. Ross has served as a Commercial Reviewer for the U.S. National Science Foundation's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding program for companies commercializing emerging micro and nanotechnologies.

Mr. Ross received a BA in Economics from Rollins College, and a Masters in Finance from Johns Hopkins University and has served as a Research Fellow at the University of Tokyo`s Graduate School of Law and Politics, Faculty of Law.