I got started in consulting during my 20 years as a Research Staff Member at IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. I began in the Manufacturing Research department, building special instruments for unique manufacturing problems for which commercial solutions did not exist, such as scanned-probe and solid-immersion microscopy, and in-chamber particle detection. I also did a fair amount of firefighting, retrofitting semiconductor lithography equipment for new capabilities, and helping fix problems that were causing immediate revenue loss in manufacturing. Later I developed new classes of computer input device, advanced scanning technology, and a new class of photonic detector and switch for optical interconnection, based on metal-insulator-metal tunnel junctions.
Front of Watson Research
The clear practical emphasis has never left me. One of the reasons that I wrote three editions of Building Electro-Optical Systems was to help people to build better products and apparatus while staying out of all the potholes in the road, and that's why I love consulting as well.
I do design consultation, expert witness work (testifying and consulting in patent and trade secret cases), contract design engineering, debug, and system bring-up tasks, as well as training in ultrasensitive detection methods and front end design. I hold 43 US patents and several foreign ones, and am thoroughly familiar with the patent process, both in prosecution (i.e. obtaining a patent) and litigation. Some of my earlier research and development projects appear below, and there's also a list of recent projects for clients.
I'm expert in the design, debug, and refinement of electrooptical and mixed-technology systems. I'm also a leading designer of ultrasensitive optoelectronics and other low noise analog circuitry. Many of my designs have improved the state of the art by orders of magnitude in performance, in cost, or both (see below). I've done groundbreaking work in thermal infrared imaging, in situ particle detection, computer input devices, simulation software, spectroscopy, atomic and magnetic force microscopy, solid immersion microscopy, heterodyne interferometry, trace metal detection, photolithography, laser scanning, plasmonics, and silicon photonics. I also have expertise in downhole instruments (especially stabilized lasers), disk drives, inspection systems, and semiconductor processing. There's more detail in my resume, as well as on the patents page, the recent work page and in the papers linked below.
On the design side, our customers to date are a mix of start-ups and larger companies, including some of the largest companies in the electronics, defense, oil-field services, and semiconductor equipment industries. We've worked as subcontractor or consultant on four defense contracts, for DARPA, the Office of Naval Research, and the Army. Our recent work page has some more details, but of course NDAs and other contractual obligations limit how much we can say about most of them. We're also introducing electro-optical instruments in cooperation with Highland Technology, a cutting-edge instruments company in California. On the intellectual property side, I'm a testifying expert witness in both patent infringement and trade secret misappropriation cases, with experience doing depositions, declarations, and expert reports, in both claim construction through validity or invalidity and infringement or noninfringement.
EOI is well-equipped for design, prototyping, and testing of optical, electronic, and mixed-technology systems of many kinds. If you have a tough technical problem and need the right solution fast, give me a buzz at the lab, 914-236-3005 (9-6 Eastern time, preferably). As always, the first hour or two is free, so if you'd like to discuss your application, you're invited to call, e-mail, or tell a colleague. I'm always interested to hear what folks are working on.