2024 CMC Conference Speaker Bios

Dr. Pavel Freundlich serves as a Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Power Solution Group at onsemi in Phoenix, Arizona. He leads technology development of semiconductor technologies for automotive and industrial power conversion, maintaining the Company’s technological leadership by delivering novel and disruptive silicon and silicon carbide solutions for power switching devices. With the increasing requirements for efficient power conversion requiring the semiconductor industry and markets to adopt wide bandgap materials, Dr. Freundlich has focused on vertical integration of silicon carbide material axnd processes at onsemi to address the supply chain challenges and to enable growth in wide bandgap semiconductor markets. As a result, onsemi silicon carbide revenue has had the highest growth in the industry, reaching an estimated 25% market share, delivering silicon carbide power conversion solutions for vehicle electrification and renewable energy harvesting to more than 600 customers. Dr. Freundlich has been also exploring opportunities and challenges in gallium nitride power devices which are still waiting for their adoption in broader markets and applications and facing their unique material and supply chain challenges. In traditional and mature silicon-based power technologies, along with developing new generations of devices he has focused on converting production to larger wafer diameters. Dr. Freundlich holds a master’s degree in solid state physics and a PhD in materials science.

Dr. Abdelhamid ElSawy, currently a Senior Scientist at MacDermid Alpha, is an accomplished research engineer and materials scientist with over 15 years of diverse expertise in inorganic, composite, film coating, and materials characterization. With a Ph.D. in Materials Science and a rich background in interdisciplinary chemical research and development, Dr. ElSawy has pioneered innovative solutions in nanomaterial synthesis, advanced characterization techniques, and creative testing methodologies.

Adam Paul is the Senior Director of Worldwide Procurement at ADI. He has been at ADI for three years and prior to that held roles of increasing responsibility within consumer electronics and automotive in supply chain, program management, and engineering. In his current role he owns the majority of the external spend management both direct and indirect for ADI and is also responsible for the procurement center of excellence.

Adam Schafer is the Head of Supply Chain Strategy at CHIPS for America in the US Department of Commerce. Adam is part of the CHIPS Strategy team evaluating the impact of bringing up US based Semiconductor manufacturing including Supply Line Sustainability, Supply Chain Resilience, Workforce Development, Construction, ESG, and Chemical Compliance. He is currently responsible for upstream and downstream strategic evaluations for CHIPS sponsored programs as well as the execution of support for Semiconductor Supply Chain applications. Adam joined CHIPS in May, 2023, following a 22-year career at Intel corporation as a process engineer, leading the Yield group in equipment supply chain management, and most recently, as the Sr Dir for Supply Chain Responsibility. Adam received his B.S. in Chemistry & Philosophy from SUNY Oswego, and his M.S. & Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Washington.

Alexander Kaiser is Global Product Manager at Edwards Vacuum. He holds a PhD of University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany) in Physics. He joined the company in 2015 and has held different roles in product management for various products, now leading the product management team for Cryogenics and iTrap Process Gas Analyzers, based in Haverhill, MA.

Andy Mackie has a PhD in physical chemistry (University of Nottingham, UK) and a MSc in physical chemistry and surface science from the University of Bristol, UK. He is an invited international keynote speaker and panel participant. He holds patents in novel polymers, heterogeneous catalysis,and solder paste formulation. He is an Alumnus of the UC Berkeley Product Management program(2015): RIT Kate Gleason College of Engineering Course in IC Processing (2003). He currently is involved in various industry engagements, including in the Board of Directors at iNEMI, Technical Advisory Board of IEEC/S3IP, Technical Council of Automotive Electronics Council (AEC), SEMI Advanced Packaging and Heterogeneous Integration (APHI) Standards Committee, and more.

Bhavya Vaidya is currently VP of Supply Chain at Lam Research Corporation. She is responsible for directing supply chain strategies for the OEM, Consumables and Contract Manufacturing Commodities at Lam Research. She started with the company 21 years ago as an Intern, and since then has grown with the company, being a key part of building the supply chain foundation of the company.

She leads a team of Strategic Commodity Management and Supply Chain Directors and Managers, and has built a diverse, geographically dispersed team spanning over 6 countries, covering multiple product lines. The team is responsible for architecting the supply chain, which includes setting up scalable, robust, leading edge supply chain networks to support the company’s current and future needs.

An entrepreneurial, C-suite level business and scientific leader with over 25 years of noteworthy experience across the semiconductor industry, Daniel Alvarez is widely recognized as a materials innovator, industry thought leader, and subject matter expert. He holds over 30 patents and has published over 50 technical and scientific reports.

Daniel has served in multiple executive-level leadership roles throughout his career, directing teams to transform processes in technology, marketing, revenue growth, and customer success. He recognizes that processing chemicals used in the semiconductor industry have a short lifetime before they are disposed of. He is committed to leading a cultural change that engages reuse and recycling.

Daniel earned his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Indiana University and served as a James Irvine fellow at the California Institute of Technology.

Dawn has over 35 years of EHS experience. She has held various positions in the EH&S field and currently manages Intel’s global supply chains’ chemical sustainability and regulatory group. Her team works to ensure Intel’s supply chain is complaint to all global chemical regulatory requirements and that they are meeting their sustainability commitments like green chemical initiatives supply chain responsible chemical management improvements. Dawn has been active in many technical EHS consortium and professional association that spans from president of the SESHA organization to technical working group members of WSC, SIA and SEMI. Dawn was also an assignee at International SEMATECH where she project managed various global chemical initiatives and the ESH assessments of new materials and processes for the advanced technologies. Dawn has managed Fab Construction Safety projects from the design phase & tool installation to de-install and demolition. She has a B.S. degree from Tulane University and a M.S. degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Dawn is a certified Industrial Hygienist and Safety Professional. Dawn enjoys traveling and spending time with her family (Husband Scott & Twin 14 yr old girls, Sofia & Gabriella). Dawn loves the outdoors, fishing in Alaska, camping, and the beach.

Dilan is a Principal Engineer and Director of Dielectrics and Surface Prep Area within Intel’s Substrate Packaging TD organization. He is responsible for enabling dielectric materials and associated deposition, etching, surface treatment and planarization processes that are key for HDI substrates. He has worked on multiple generations of Intel’s substrate research and development programs since the 45nm technology node. He has been instrumental in enabling multiple generations of substrate dielectric materials for conventional and high-speed applications along with key processes in support of Intel’s IC substrates. Prior to joining Intel, Dilan was a researcher working in ceramics, MEMS and silicon photonics. Dilan has a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Bachelor’s degree from Imperial College, London, U.K.

Eric A. Joseph is a Principal Research Scientist at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY. He joined IBM in 2005 and is currently the MRL Unit Process Strategic Engagement Lead. In his role, he is responsible for defining and delivering novel process technology strategy and capability for IBM’s MRL advanced prototyping facility and is the champion for recent efforts and strategic engagements to develop sustainable semiconductor supply chain solutions for IBM’s R&D ecosystem. He is an author or co-author of over 75 technical papers, has over 90 patents filed or pending, and has been an active member of AVS, being named an AVS Fellow in 2022.

George Alajajian is the Vice President of Strategic Parts Supply Chain for Intel. He joined Global Supply Chain team in the beginning of 2020 and responsible for shaping Intel’s parts supply chain network to deliver world class parts performance for quality, availability, cost and cycle time to Technology Development and High-Volume Manufacturing operations.

George has more than 25 years of industry experience, with 20+ years in senior executive positions in the semiconductor capital equipment industry. He has established a solid track record demonstrated by delivering step function improvement in operational performance and profitability. In addition to that he also led large scale / complex multifunctional (engineering, IT, manufacturing, supply chain and spares) teams, and has successfully driven geographically dispersed supply chain and business operations.

George joined Intel from Applied Materials where he served in various leadership roles, including Corporate VP, Global Operations and Component Engineering for Applied Global Services (AGS) Group, Corporate VP Global Sourcing Organization. Prior to Applied, George was VP of operations for E-Beam Metrology Group at KLA-Tencor Corporation and Corporate Officer and Operations VP for Kevex Instruments. He holds a doctorate in Physics from Yerevan State University in Republic of Armenia and MBA degree from Pepperdine University.

James Hamzik is Senior Manager of Membrane Chemistry within the Microcontamination Control Division of Entegris Inc. Entegris helps customers improve their process productivity and performance by providing yield enhancing materials and solutions for the most advanced manufacturing environments. He joined Entegris in 2015 and has been responsible for driving technology and product development roadmaps for surface modified membranes and liquid purifiers. These advanced membranes are designed with tailored surface chemistry that enables leading edge semiconductor fabrication. Prior to Entegris, he worked on developing bioprocess technologies and was responsible for commercializing several breakthrough products in the field of protein and biopharmaceutical manufacturing.

James has over 15 years of industry experience and has established a solid track record of delivering innovative filtration and purification solutions across industries. He has over a dozen patents in the fields of membranes, surface modification, polymers, and liquid purification. He has extensive experience with technology identification, development, and product commercialization. He received degrees in Natural Products Chemistry and an MBA focusing on Corporate Strategy and Entrepreneurship.

Jeb serves as the CTO and Founder of 3D Glass Solutions and brings more than 20 years of expertise in the applied technology and high-tech manufacturing industry. He holds more than 110 patents that have been either granted or are pending on a variety of technologies. He is also a recipient of an R&D 100 award (the “Oscars of invention”), which highlighted his invention of painless in vivo diagnostic hardware for glucose sensing. He has a diverse background in the advanced manufacturing of electronic packaging, RF devices and systems, and chem/bio-sensors.

Jeb holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology; a MS in Chemical Engineering from the University of New Mexico; and an MBA from the Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico.

Jeff Perkins is the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Yole Inc. Jeff has led business development activities across a range of industries including semiconductor, energy and electrification, aerospace, medical devices, and automotive. Jeff holds an MBA from INSEAD at Fontainebleau, France, and a BSc in Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Jeff Yoder is the Senior Director of HVM Product Management at Air Liquide Advanced Materials and has worked at Air Liquide since 2017. He has over 15 years of experience in customer facing roles within the chemical and electronics industries including in Technical and Product Marketing at Symyx Technologies and as Strategic Partnership Manager at Kinestral (now called Halio). Jeff holds a Ph.D. in organometallic chemistry from the California Institute of Technology.

Dr. Yoon is TGV Program manager in Advanced Optics at Corning Inc. responsible for managing the overall functionality of a complex innovation program. Dr.Yoon received his Ph. D degree in Materials Science from The Ohio State University and joined Corning in 2012. Dr. Yoon started new position TGV program manager in 2018 and has explored new opportunities in glass packaging with industry partners. Dr. Yoon has several US and international patents in glass microfabrication and structuring.

Dr. Karey Holland has specialized in advanced semiconductor transistor fabrication, including metrology, CMP, ALD & CVD, photolithography, and interconnect technologies for over 30 years. She was CTO of start-up NexPlanar, strategic marketing senior manager at FEI, on the Board of Directors at Nova Measuring Instruments, VP of technology at CMP pad supplier Thomas West, and CTO and VP of process technology at CMP OEM IPEC/SpeedFam-IPEC. Previously, she was manager of manufacturing planning for Motorola’s Microprocessor and Memory Technology Group. Her career began in process engineering at IBM where she managed DUV lithography technology development, and worked on interconnect integration for 4 and 16 Mb DRAMs, which were the first chips in the world to use tungsten plugs and CMP for all interconnect dielectrics. She holds a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Pennsylvania State University, a M.S. in analytical chemistry from Purdue University, and a B.A. in chemistry from Albion College.

Karl has been working in the semiconductor industry for over 30 years, as an initial innovator in CMP through to advanced integration of logic and memory chips. Most recently he joined ASM as the principal engineer for PEALD development working across multiple programs. Prior to this he was the director of engineering at imec with a full team of process engineers developing new processes for standard logic and memory as well as innovative chips for microfluidics, optical interconnect, 3D packaging and numerous other programs.

Dr. Lihong Cao is a Sr. Director in ASE Group responsible for advanced packaging technology development, new product introduction, and business engagement. Her expertise spans from design, process development and production enablement. She leads chiplets Die to Die interconnect standardization effort in UCIe (Universal Chiplets Interconnect Express) consortium as Board of Director of ASE.

Prior to joining ASE, as a senior manager, Lihong led advanced packaging technology qualification worldwide in AMD for 16 years. She also had academic experience as a Research Associate Professor in Nanyang Technology University in Singapore.

Lita Shon-Roy – President/CEO and Founder of TECHCET—has worked throughout the semiconductor supply chain, leading strategy, business development, marketing and sales for chip designers, equipment OEMs, and material suppliers for over 30 years.

Her experience spans from process development of memory chips to business development of gases & precursors. She developed new business opportunities for companies such as RASIRC/Matheson Gases, Air Products & Chemicals, and IPEC/Speedfam, and managed marketing and sales in companies such as Air Products/Schumacher, Brooktree/Rockwell, and Hughes Aircraft.

Ms. Shon-Roy is considered one of the leading experts in electronic materials market analysis and business development. She has authored and co-authored 100’s of articles, reports and texts on semiconductor process materials markets, trends, and worldwide supply chain issues, and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal and featured on BBC News. She holds an M.B.A. from California State University, Dominguez Hills, a M.S.E.E. focused on Solid State Physics from the University of Southern California, and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from UC San Diego.

Pawitter Mangat is Senior Director at GLOBALFOUNDRIES and managing Global Analytical Laboratories focusing on physical, chemical and electrical failure analysis. Previously, he lead the Global Supplier Quality & Materials Engineering teams to enhance materials performance and align the overall supplier management strategy, that allowed early detections of variations at the suppliers with 10X reduction in Supplier caused waste over last 5 years. He also led implementation of EUV lithography infrastructure at Fab 8. Malta NY while mitigating key technical challenges and providing manufacturable solutions for sub-10nm node foundry business. Prior to joining GlobalFoundries in 2011, held multiple leadership roles during his 15-year tenure at Motorola Inc. He managed global/virtual teams in multi-disciplinary projects including next generation lithography, nanotechnology, external consortia research and concept to prototype realization. He is also a recipient of 2003 SRC Mahboob Khan Outstanding Industry Liaison Award. He is Globalfoundries Master Inventor and has 30 issued patents and co-authored 100+ technical publications.

Dr. Robert Rhoades is the President and CTO of X-trinsic, a technology company providing wafer processing services and consulting to the Silicon Carbide (SiC) market. He earned a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois. He spent 2 years at Oak Ridge National Lab researching high density plasma technology followed by 3 years at Motorola as a senior process engineer leading early efforts to integrate CMP into manufacturing. In 1997, he joined a small slurry company, Solution Technology, Inc, which was later acquired by Rodel, Inc (now part of Dupont) where he led the global process team. In 2002, Dr. Rhoades joined Entrepix as CTO and helped launch a new business model providing process and equipment services for customers using CMP for everything from R&D prototypes through volume production on virtually any material. In 2017, he joined Revasum, a polisher and grinder OEM based in California. In 2021, he launched his current company, X-trinsic.

‘Pops’ Papa Rao is the VP for Research at NY CREATES, based in Albany, NY. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (Chennai, India) and a Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA). He joined Texas Instruments’ Silicon Technology Development in 1996, starting in yield enhancement of 64MB DRAM, and progressing to metallization of 32 nm CMOS node interconnects. He joined IBM Research in 2007, where he was involved in research on 22 nm node CMP processes, crystalline Si solar cells, and devices for DNA nucleotide recognition. Since 2014, he has been at Albany – first with SEMATECH, and with NY CREATES when it was launched in 2018. He leads research at NY CREATES – quantum, neuromorphic, high-speed digital and energy-efficient computing in addition to work on bio-interfaces. He also holds a volunteer position as an Adjunct Professor at U. Albany (SUNY).

Dr. Stefan Müller received the joint master’s degree in Microelectronics from Technical University Munich, Germany, and Nanyang Technological University Singapore in 2011. He also holds a German diploma degree in Mechatronics and Information Technology as well as a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering both from Technical University Munich, Germany (2011/2008). In 2011, he joined NaMLab, a research institute of the University of Technology
Dresden. In 2015, he received his PhD degree for his work on HfO2-based ferroelectric devices. In 2016, he co-founded FMC – The Ferroelectric Memory Company where he currently holds the position of CTO.

Trace has been working in research and development in the semiconductor industry for over 30 years. He is currently Sr. Director of Technology at Tokyo Electron America leading an organization developing future generation process hardware and advanced process simulation. Prior to working at TEL, Trace led ATMI’s post etch and post CMP cleaning chemistry development orgs. He began his career at Texas instruments working in advanced logic process technology development, primarily in wafer cleaning and novel materials contamination control. He holds BS and PhD degrees in Chemistry.

Tyler Scott is currently the Head of Front-End Global Sourcing at onsemi, headquartered in Scottsdale, AZ. His organization manages and secures supply of all major direct materials for onsemi including Silicon, Chemicals, Gases, Metals, and Photomasks. onsemi’s strategic manufacturing locations are spread Globally throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Tyler has spent the last 15 years of his career in the Semiconductor Industry; starting with Fairchild and then moving to onsemi in 2016. He has moved around the United States managing Procurement Organizations at Fabs located in Utah, Idaho, Maine, and Pennsylvania. During that tenure, his procurement and supply chain responsibilities covered everything from Direct Materials to OEM
Equipment-Spares-Services to even Construction-Fab Expansion Projects. Tyler holds an M.B.A and a B.S in Business Mgmt. from Westminster University.