Semiconductor Expert Witnesses

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What is a semiconductor expert witness?

Semiconductor expert witness candidates typically have advanced degrees and extensive experience in integrated circuits, semiconductor manufacturing, and/or electrical engineering. Semiconductors expert witnesses must have a deep understanding not only of semiconductor technology, but also of the semiconductor industry, market share, and the developing technologies of the industry’s leading players. A semiconductor expert witness must have a deep understanding of the chip market, its history, the progression of the technology, and often an understanding of which competitors were working on various designs at different points of time during the initial development stage.

What types of cases require a semiconductor expert witness?

An expert witness in the semiconductor field will typically provide his or her expertise in intellectual property matters, such as a patent litigation in the federal court. It could be a patent infringement case or trade secrets matter in the District Court, an Inter Partes Review (IPR) in the PTAB (where the only expert testimony is through a deposition), or a patent case or proceeding before the International Trade Commission (ITC). Less frequently, a semiconductor expert might provide testimony in a torts matter like a product liability case involving the failure analysis of a consumer electronics or medical device.

What litigation support work might a semiconductor expert witness be expected to perform?

A testifying expert, or expert witness, is generally the only one in the court who is allowed to provide testimony as to his or her opinion — because it is an expert opinion. Regardless of whether this takes the form of testimony in a deposition or trial, or in an expert report, the engineering component will provide credibility to his or her analyses and allow the jury to consider the expert’s opinion with the weight it deserves. Typical expert witness activities include prior art searches, research and authoring expert reports, depositions, and expert testimony in the courtroom.

And while many semiconductor device consultants have forensic engineering expertise, the expert witness carries the additional responsibility of providing testimony before the court, in a manner whereby lay people (the judge and jurors) can understand the technical evidence. In a high-profile case, or litigation involving a significant financial stake, a law firm may request an electrical engineer with prior expert witness experience.

Cahn Litigation Services has completed numerous searches for an expert witness in the semiconductor space, providing candidates for each case to the specifications provided by the attorney in charge. Whether it’s for a semiconductor patent case or pre-litigation reverse engineering, Cahn Litigation Services has the experience required to turn the search around quickly and provide litigation support candidates with the right balance of expertise and testimony to get the job done.

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Semiconductor Expert Witness - Representative Bios

Please Note: All Cahn Litigation expert witness searches are customized to attorneys' precise specifications and preferences. Attorneys are encouraged to discuss search parameters with a Cahn search specialist.

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The below expert witness bios represent a small fraction of those Semiconductor experts known by Cahn Litigation Services. These bios are provided to give lawyers a sense of the Semiconductor landscape.

• Expert Witness #223130

  This expert is a noted independent semiconductor manufacturing and processing consultant. This expert has served as an expert in a number of plasma etching and semiconductor packaging matters. This expert holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science and worked developing semiconductor manufacturing technologies for four companies. This expert's work in the various positions led to three patents related to manufacturing processes and three patents related to circuits. This expert supervised the integration of the device and circuit technologies into one functioning semiconductor product. This expert has worked on 39 cases as a testifying expert or as a consulting expert and has testified at trials and in eighteen depositions, all of which were very successful. This expert also has approximately 20 IPRs under the belt, several of which, as mentioned above, are related to packaging diced wafers and plasma etching. This expert maintains a blog with more than 1,200 readers, an extensive educational semiconductor website, and a database frequently accessed by the USPTO, US Department of Justice, major technology companies, attorneys, and investors.

  
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• Expert Witness #235293

  This expert has been a technical professional in the semiconductor industry for many years, including years spent as a Device Engineer at a leading semiconductor company. This expert was formerly an instructor for a College of Engineering, and more recently was employed as a Process Integration Engineer where this expert worked on advanced technology node development. An expert across 13 generations of processing technology (500 nm to 14 nm) and specializing in front-end process integration, this expert's expertise includes:

  -  Planar versus FinFET processing: key processing differences, problems and respective advantages

  -  All aspects of tensile and compressive strain inducement to enhance transistor performance

  -  High-k/Metal gate process realization and integration challenges

  -  Advanced contact strategies

  -  Back-end metallization including barrier metal optimization and resistance control

  A renowned lecturer and award-winning public speaker in the field of silicon processing, this expert has taught numerous courses to thousands of practicing engineers and scientists. This expert has also authored numerous papers in the field of silicon processing, and is currently the president of a firm that provides consulting services and technical training seminars to the semiconductor industry. This expert has extensive expert witness experience having been the lead expert witness in a multibillion-dollar litigation between two major Chinese semiconductor companies. This expert's work included a detailed analysis of four generations of microchip process flows to ascertain the veracity of trade secret claims, detailed reports describing the evolution of key processing technologies and their relevance to the disputed trade secrets. This expert has testified in an eight-hour deposition as well as took the stand for three hours in Federal court to opine on the validity of specific trade secret claims.

  
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• Expert Witness #244900

  This expert has worked with PMOS, NMOS, and CMOS process technologies throughout this expert's career, including many years in the semiconductor industry. Following the stint in industry, this expert joined the Electrical Engineering Department at a University where this expert teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in semiconductor/integrated circuit design and test technology, electronic devices and circuits, and VLSI technology. At a major technology company, this expert contributed to a number of product technology programs including the 4K DRAM, CCDs, NMOS and CMOS process development and non-volatile memories (DIFMOS), one of the first commercial EEPROM devices. In addition, this expert is the inventor or co-inventor of fourteen patents in semiconductor memory circuits and related fields. A silicon device expert with specific emphasis on process, device design, device characteristics and the use of the devices within the integrated circuit memories, this expert's consulting activities include serving as an expert witness in the fields of integrated circuit and transistor technology, and in areas dealing with electrical and electronic product design and electrical safety. This expert has published a variety of technical papers on subjects ranging from floating-gate nonvolatile memories to digital converters to numerical analysis of storage times of DRAM cells incorporating ultrathin dielectrics. This expert holds thirteen patents in the field of semiconductor devices, processes and circuits, is an IEEE Senior Member and has extensive expert witness experience providing deposition and testimony in various courts for over one hundred cases.

  
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• Expert Witness #249889

  This expert is a storage industry expert and veteran with many years of experience in this space. This expert was most recently a corporate officer at a company which offers the industry's broadest portfolio of silicon-to-semiconductor solutions--starting with foundational DRAM, NAND, and NOR Flash memory, and extending to SSDs, modules, MCPs, HMCs, 3D Point, and other semiconductor systems. There this expert held the role of VP & Chief Strategist NAND Solutions Group where this expert was in charge of strategy and product portfolio for the segment. Prior he served with a company as VP & GM Enterprise Storage and also served as VP, & Chief Memory Systems Architect with the company. This expert joined the company after another semiconductor company where he served as Chief Technology Officer. Before this, this expert had a variety of roles in the Flash memory group at a major semiconductor company, and then was appointed its Chief Technology Officer. This expert earned a Bachelor of Science degree in computer engineering. This expert has many years of experience in semiconductor memories, holds multiple patents, and is a frequent keynote speaker at memory conferences.

  
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• Expert Witness #254763

  This expert is a Professor and holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and has served in various capacities at major semiconductor manufacturers and research and development firms. This expert's focus was on IC and microcontroller design and manufacturing and this expert managed and coordinated with semiconductor equipment based (MEMS) fabrication facilities during tenure in the industry. This expert is well versed in semiconductor plasma etch technology and has authored a number of technical conference papers on the subject which are available upon request. Due to work in industry, this expert has served as an internal subject matter expert on a number of IP matters related to deep-reactive-ion-etch (DRIE) techniques, MEMS-semiconductor process flows, accelerometers, gyroscopes, infrared temperature and pressure sensors, but has never provided testimony in this capacity.

  
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• Expert Witness #226732

  This expert has many years' experience with semiconductor products having worked for several semiconductor companies. This expert authored a report on IC Packaging. This expert has deep expert witness experience.

  
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• Expert Witness #226792

  This expert is an independent semiconductor manufacturing and processing consultant. This expert holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science from a prestigious university where the focus was, among other topics, the multi-purpose processing chamber for CVD, etch, and sputtering with measurement capability. This expert performed all wafer processing to construct MIS capacitors, including lithography, etch, CVD and PVD. As a consultant this expert reviewed new semiconductor technologies for etching and particle reduction in semiconductor processing chambers. This expert also suggested advanced semiconductor process equipment engineering for a military laboratory. This expert has strong experience as an expert witness, having served in five matters, and having given depositions and testified at trial on semiconductor manufacturing and semiconductor processing. This expert is well-published, and holds four utility patents.

  
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• Expert Witness #226931

  This expert has many years of experience in microcircuit and semiconductor technologies and has developed skills in areas of circuit design and analysis, device fabrication and assembly, testing, marketing, control system design and analysis, manufacturing operations and respective areas of quality, reliability, and defect / failure analysis.

  This expert worked for a technology company in design, production, and QA, and was the QA manager of a DRAM Wafer Fabrication Facility.

  
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• Expert Witness #255792

  This expert is a Senior member of the IEEE. This expert designed Wireless Interference Testing Intelligences and simulation studies, and now owns a Consulting company. This expert has extensive experience in wireless and embedded systems design for the cellular, avionics and aerospace, public safety, consumer, medical devices, and semiconductor industries. This expert was the Consulting Engineer and Wireless SME for android-based Wi-Fi Infusion Pumps. This expert worked on chip designs for cordless and CDMA phones. This expert was appointed faculty teaching CDMA and communications theory. This expert is the named inventor on twenty issued US utility patents covering cellular, public safety radio, and cordless technologies. This expert is a registered Professional Engineer and is admitted to the Patent Bar and is licensed to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. This expert is the recipient of several industry awards. This expert has been an expert witness in five matters and has provided deposition and trial testimony.

  
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• Expert Witness #226851

  This expert has in-depth experience in semiconductor manufacturing from a hands-on perspective as well as a management and operations perspective. This expert has served as an expert in numerous cases involving semiconductor manufacturing. This expert began a career in semiconductor device research many years ago with multiple patents and publications, but moved to manufacturing, starting as a section manager and eventually becoming the operations director of a 24/7 CMOS/BiCMOS wafer fab. In that capacity this expert was responsible for the production and delivery of tens of millions of packaged chips for cell phones and WiFi products. More recently, this expert has used his experience to lead chip design and prototyping projects using a variety of fabs. This expert has a solid perspective on past and state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing trends in technology and economics.

  
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• Expert Witness #256758

  This expert holds a PhD in Electrophysics. This expert began research in CMP and has served as PhD thesis advisor or co-advisor for PhD graduates in various areas on CMP, all working on full-wafer CMP tools using a conventional polishing table. This expert has co-authored two books, over 40 refereed journal articles and presented over 20 invited or contributed papers at international conferences on different aspects of the CMP process for a variety of applications. When there was increasing acceptance of CMP as a vital process in IC interconnect technology, this expert's programs were in the forefront of university research.

  This expert worked with companies interested in becoming a CMP consumable supplier, mostly polishing pads and slurries. Working with such companies expanded this expert's knowledge base in these important consumables and enriched ongoing research programs. This expert's experience with industrial researchers on industrial-sponsored programs allowed this expert to better describe IC company needs during the decade of CMP expanding importance in IC manufacturing.

  This expert has been a consultant and testifying expert in a variety of patents cases, mostly in the CMP area but also in other areas. One case involved using an aperture in a polishing pad to sense end-point detection during the CMP process. This expert has had appreciable experience in analyzing validity and infringement issues, being deposed and testifying at trial.

  
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• Expert Witness #266751

  This expert’s life-long experience is in semiconductor manufacturing related technologies in both development and fab (OR2), specifically on 0.12, 0.16, 0.18 and 0.25 micron technology process development, and on 65nm, 90nm and 120nm technology manufacturing for IC processing specifically in SiTD , Kfab and DMOS 6. Most recently working with a federal research grant at a small scale cleanroom. This expert is the recipient of numerous awards and holds 16 patents in semiconductor manufacturing devices and processes. This expert is well-published and is a frequent presenter at industry and academic conferences and symposia.

  
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