July 24, 2012 -- Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) recently named Jalinous (Jay) Esfandyari, MEMS product marketing manager, STMicroelectronics, as its MEMS Working Group chairman and Ken Potts, group director of marketing, Strategic Planning, Cadence Design Systems, as the 3D IC Working Group chairman.

Micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS)

In June, the MEMS working group heard presentations on MEMS market directions for the next decade and discussed collaboration with other industry efforts, as well as a strong focus on setting impactful deliverables. The Working Group considered several possible areas of development during this inaugural meeting, including potential deliverables such as MEMS Product Design Kits, a MEMS Glossary of Terms, or providing a MEMS EDA Tools Workshop.

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. As the MEMS Product Marketing Manager at STMicroelectronics, he 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, and created solutions to perform analysis and computer simulation to improve the quality of silicon wafers. Esfandyari holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Technology of Vienna, Austria.

3D IC

The 3D IC working group has been operating for 3 years within GSA. In the future, the 3D IC working group will focus less on the educational aspects of this relatively new semiconductor technology, and more on its implementation. The working group will focus on 3D IC business model development, test related activities, and design and manufacturing challenges to full-scale implementation of 3D IC technology. The group will also continue to be an educational facilitator and knowledge repository.

Potts’ background is a unique blend of practical electronic and mechanical engineering experience, including marketing, sales, executive management, and entrepreneurship. In his current position at Cadence, Potts is responsible for leading the company’s strategic planning process.

After receiving a BSEE in Electrical Engineering from Montana State University, his engineering career has been spent in advanced development groups for the US Navy as well as two Fortune 500 companies. He has also been a consistent innovation contributor on solid state lasers, neural networks, 3D IC technology, high performance chipsets, and graphics processors and is a co-inventor on five US patents. Since moving into the EDA and IP industry, he has held several Product and Services Marketing as well as Sales executive positions at Cadence and Virage Logic.

The Global Semiconductor Alliance mission is to accelerate the growth and increase the return on invested capital of the global semiconductor industry by fostering a more effective ecosystem through collaboration, integration and innovation. Learn more at www.gsaglobal.org