Advanced Diamond Technologies, Inc.
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Advanced Diamond Technologies, Inc.
Advanced Diamond Technologies, Inc.
Advanced Diamond Technologies, Inc.
Advanced Diamond Technologies, Inc.

July 14, 2010
ADT Awarded Grant to develop the next generation of CMP pad conditioners.

June 30, 2010
VISIT ADT at SEMICON WEST, July 13-15, in the Extreme Electronics section, booth #2536.

June 21, 2010
ADT co-founder and Argonne scientist, Orlando Auciello, announced as Distinguished Fellow by the U.S. Department of Energy.

June 16, 2010
ADT publishes groundbreaking work in the May 2010 issue of the journal ACS Nano. Read the full press release here.

June 11, 2010
Neil Kane of Advanced Diamond Technologies testifies before House Subcommittee on improving technology transfer.

May 26, 2010
The prestigious journal Small publishes paper on extreme wear properties of NaDiaProbes.

May 19, 2010
ADT scientists co-author an article on the wear resistance of diamond nanoprobe tips in ACS Nano.

May 18, 2010
John Carlisle, CTO, to present "Diamond MEMS: from the lab to the foundry" at the MEMS CTO Meeting on June 21st in Anaheim, California.

May 11, 2010
Dr. Diane P. Hickey & Dr. John Carlisle of ADT discuss diamond advances for micro manufacturing in EuroAsia Semiconductor magazine.

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Advanced Diamond Technologies, Inc. Advanced Diamond Technologies, Inc.

About Us < Team

    Founders

    Management

    Board Members


    Founders

    Dr. Orlando Auciello, Founding Scientist
    Dr. Orlando Auciello is a Senior Scientist in the Materials Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory and an Adjunct Professor at North Carolina State University and the University of Illinois-Chicago. He earned his MS and Ph.D. degrees from the Institute "Balseiro" (University of Cuyo, Argentina) and held various academic and industrial positions in Canada and the U.S. before coming to Argonne. Dr. Auciello has contributed extensively to the science and technology of plasma, ion beam and laser interaction with solids, complex oxide thin films (e.g., ferroelectrics, high-k dielectrics and new CMOS gates), wide bandgap thin films (GaN, AlN), and nanocrystalline diamond films for MEMS, NEMS, and field emission devices. He has published about 350 papers and numerous review articles and book chapters, in addition to editing ten books and obtaining seven patents. He has received several honors, including the 2003 R&D 100 Award for co-development of the large-area plasma systems for the deposition of Ultrananocrystalline diamond, the 2003 Hispanic Engineering National Achievement Award for outstanding technical accomplishments in the general field of science and technology of thin films, and a 2002 special recognition from the Materials Research Society for outstanding contributions to that society as a member of the Governing Board.

    Dr. John Carlisle, Founding Scientist and Chief Technical Officer
    Dr. John Carlisle, Chief Technical Officer, co-founded ADT in 2003 while he was a staff scientist in the Materials Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). Carlisle is a recognized leader in the world diamond community, and his work in recent years has spanned the basic-applied-commercial continuum. While at ANL he worked on a number of technology development projects connected with the UNCD® thin film technology he co-developed at ANL, including establishing materials integration strategies relevant to the use of UNCD in MEMS devices, the use of UNCD as a wear resistant low-friction coating for mechanical pump seals, and the development of low-temperature UNCD as a hermetic coating for a retinal prosthesis, all of this work continuing in ADT. He is also a co-recipient of the prestigious R&D 100 award in 2003 for the development of large-area plasma systems for the deposition of UNCD. In the process of founding ADT he developed a larger interest in the debate over the role of scientists in the commercialization of technologies born of their research, and the technology transfer plan developed for ADT based on his efforts has been recognized by the Department of Energy as a model for future tech transfer activities at national labs. His recent basic research interests have focused on the synthesis and characterization of nanostructured carbon materials, including nanodiamond thin films, carbon nanotubes, and hybrids of these materials. Previously he conducted seminal work in the area of surface physics and synchrotron radiation characterization of surface and thin film material systems.  

    Dr. Carlisle received BS degrees in both physics and mathematics, with highest honors and academic distinction, from Texas A&M University, as well as an MS degree in Physics from the same institution. In 1993 he completed his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Carlisle has published about 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals, given numerous invited lectures at international conference, and has one issued patent and several others under review.

    Neil Kane, President
    Mr. Kane is the former Executive Director of the Illinois Technology Enterprise Center at Argonne National Laboratory and Entrepreneur in Residence with Illinois Ventures, LLC. As EIR, Mr. Kane was interim CEO of several of their portfolio companies. He has closed several rounds of venture capital from various sources and has secured numerous SBIR and government contracts and awards. As a consultant he has evaluated the commercial potential of advanced technologies for The University of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Illinois Institute of Technology.  

    Mr. Kane was named a 2007 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum.

    Earlier he was Regional Business Development Manager for Microsoft Corporation in Chicago. In this role he identified, negotiated and closed a $25 million equity investment in an Illinois-based software company. He spoke publicly as an evangelist for Microsoft on dozens of occasions.

    He began his business career at IBM where he held a series of marketing and technical positions. In his last position, he was a Business Consultant focused on furthering the technology penetration of IBM products at several major accounts in the process and consumer packaged goods industries. Before that, he was the IBM liaison to Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) and helped create the strategic business alliance between IBM and Andersen Consulting that became the model for the industry. In this capacity he earned membership into IBM’s Golden Circle. He be­gan his career as a manufacturing engineer in IBM’s San Jose, California disk drive facility where he designed robotic tooling.

    Neil holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (high honors) and a Masters of Business Administration (finance and policy studies) from The University of Chicago. He has attended graduate school in Australia and attended a post-graduate international management program in Japan on scholarship from JETRO.


MANAGEMENT

Charles West, VP of Engineering
Charles F. (Charlie) West has been leading and developing product development of thin inorganic films for over 30 years. He has been directly responsible for the development of many vapor phase thin-film (primarily CVD) applications in the areas of electronic, bio-medical, optics, and wear and corrosion. Prior to joining ADT he was one of the founders of QuesTek Innovations, LLC, another award-winning high tech startup in the Chicago area. Charlie was the CVD Group leader and a Research Scientist at Northwestern University prior to starting QuesTek and a research scientist for 10 years at Battelle Columbus Laboratories in the Electronic and Optical Materials Group. Charlie has been working directly with prospective clients and helping them develop new products and processes throughout his career. He has also been personally responsible for enabling and transferring new and unique CVD processing to NASA, universities, national laboratories, and several industrial firms. 

Dr. Nicolaie Moldovan, MEMS Lead Scientist
Nicolaie ("Mike") Moldovan is a top micro-nanofabrication expert with 20+ years of experience in materials, process, and device integration. He joined ADT after being a research professor with Northwestern University where he developed diamond AFM probes, nanofountain probes for AFM nanolithography, and carbon nanotube devices. During 1998-2002, with Argonne National Laboratory, he conducted research in ultradeep x-ray lithography, x-ray microoptics, field emitters, and ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) microfabrication technologies. From 1983 to 1998 he developed electronic devices, micro-optics, and microfabrication technologies at the Institute for Electronic Components and the Institute of Microtechnology in Bucharest, Romania. As head of the Laboratory for Unconventional Microfabrication Technologies, he ran international projects in LIGA technology, silicon, germanium, metal, and glass micromachining for micromechanics and micro-optics.

Dr. Moldovan received his M.Sc. degree (1982) and his Ph.D. (1997) in Physics from the University of Bucharest, Romania. He completed two DAAD research stages in the Fraunhofer Institute for Solid State Technology Germany, where he specialized in anisotropic etching of silicon and germanium, and stress engineering in thin films and membranes. Among his achievements is listed a master equation-based atomic scale model able to reproduce the Si-KOH etching anisotropy diagram starting from atomic and lattice parameters. He has authored more than 100 scientific papers, five patents, and received an R&D 100 award.  

Dr. Diane P. Hickey, Director of Marketing & Sales
Diane Hickey possesses a strong balance of technical and communication skills and is uniquely able to translate features of advanced materials technology into benefits for customers. Holding a Ph.D. from the University of Florida (one of the top ten Material Science & Engineering programs in the country), Dr. Hickey spent her time in graduate school researching diamond-structured materials, including diamond, silicon and germanium. She also pursued graduate research in Science Communication (College of Journalism) where she studied mass media's coverage of nanotechnology.

Dr. Hickey began her business career at Accenture (originally Andersen Consulting), and continued at the small business strategy start-up C-bridge, where she led teams of developers and designers to rapidly prototype business solutions for a variety of Fortune 500 clients. She holds her B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Auburn University, where she was named one of the top 20 female leaders on campus (student body: 22,000).

Richard Williston, Director of Manufacturing
Richard Williston joined Advanced Diamond in 2009 and is responsible for manufacturing, product delivery, product quality, environmental health and safety, facilities, equipment engineering and supply chain management, along with product development into manufacturing, process transfer and back-end operations. Richard has an extensive background in MEMS, LCD display, microelectronics and semiconductor manufacturing, gained in over 23 years of experience with several leading companies in the high-tech sector.
Prior to joining ADT, Richard held similar positions at MEMS start-ups such as Microbridge Technologies, BigBangwidth, Advanced Integrated Microsystems, and worked for established manufacturers such as Nortel Networks, Com Dev International, Delphax Systems and Litton Systems Canada Limited. Most notably, he managed the diamond production efforts at Crystalline Materials Corporation for over four years, transitioning the company from raw start-up to the lowest-cost, volume supplier of diamond heatsink solutions. Richard holds a B.Sc. in Solid State Physics from the University of Waterloo and a M.E.Sc. in Materials Engineering from the University of Western Ontario.

Greg Broschka, Production Manager
Greg Broschka is an experienced professional with background in manufacturing management, industrial R&D, engineering, marketing, economics, and regulatory affairs. Prior to ADT, he worked 10 years at Kepner Products Company, a manufacturer of precision-engineered valves, where he was responsible for manufacturing operations, manufacturing engineering, production control, quality, and purchasing. Before that he spent 20 years in the energy industry with Amoco (now BP). Greg has an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and also an MS degree in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University. He earned a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Hongjun Zeng, Senior MEMS R&D Scientist
Dr. Hongjun Zeng is a leading expert in Optical MEMS, microfluidics, micro and nano fabrication. Dr. Zeng received a PhD degree from Chinese Academy Sciences. He has 12-year extensive experience in the development of the MEMS/Nano devices and fabrication techniques, including Moving Mask lithography, agile actuators especially micro-mirrors, micro-screening chips for toxin detection, nanochannels and materials for nanofabrication. Currently he is more focusing on surface micro- and nano-machining including CVD/PVD thin film manufacturing for different industrial applications. Before joining ADT, Dr.Zeng was a R&D Engineer at Foxconn and a research scientist at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Dr. Zeng was an inventor and core investigator of several novel microfabrication techniques. He was a co-principal investigator in the Chinese Academy of Sciences Knowledge Innovation Program (KIP), which specifically supports “technologies with strategic significance”. He was a winner of second class Deng Physics Prize in 1996 and the third class Prize of Sichuan Province Science and Technology Improvement in 2001. He authored/co-authored 3 patents and more than 50 publications and presentations. He was elected as a senior member of IEEE and full member of Sigma Xi in 2006. He is a senior reviewer of many top journals such as Optics Letters, Optics Express, Nanotechnology, IEEE-PTL, JMEMS, JMM, JVST-B, etc.

James Netzel, Director of Seals Engineering
James P. (Jim) Netzel has more than forty years of experience in the design and application of mechanical seals which includes twenty years of service as Chief Engineer at John Crane, Morton Grove, Illinois.  He has written and has published numerous technical papers that were published through the International Pump Symposium, STLE, ASME, BHRA, AISE, SAE, and various trade publications.  Jim has written chapters on seals, sealing systems for the Pump Handbook, The Centrifugal Pump Handbook and the Compressor Handbook.   

Jim received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1963 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  He is a fellow of The Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE).


BOARD MEMBERS

Bob Geras, Board Member
Bob Geras, President of LaSalle Investments, Incorporated, has been an active participant in the VC and angel community in Chicago for over 35 years.  Bob has extensive line operating experience as an entrepreneur, and he received the “Angel of the Year-2002” award by the Chicago Software Association.  Bob has been a featured panelist, lecturer, mentor and/or business plan judge for the Illinois Coalition, the University of Illinois, Kellogg School of Management, University of Chicago, Roosevelt University, DePaul University as well as in seminars sponsored by the Chicago Software Association, Garage.com, the Midwest Entrepreneurship Forum, and the Association for Corporate Growth. 

In 1986 he bought MEDX, Inc. a troubled Rolling Meadows, Illinois medical equipment company, and in five years turned it around and sold the company for 26 times his cost. Since 1989, he’s been a co-founder and the largest shareholder of publicly traded Merge Technologies (MRGE), the industry leader in eHealth connectivity products for medical imaging and other clinical information, helping to make the "electronic patient record" a reality.  He's also an investor in Exadigm, NexVu, and 20/20 Technologies. Bob is also a director and/or investor in VideoHomeTours, ShowingTime.com, Citizens Bank and Trust, and PowerQuest Corporation, a leading software developer and technology pioneer. In addition, he is an investor and/or advisor to Kettle Partners, Chicago Ventures, KB Partners, Kingsport Capital, Artesian Capital, and is a founding member and a Director of the Illinois Venture Capital Association.

John Regan, Board Member
John Regan is a Senior Director of Illinois Ventures, LLC.

Jeffrey Niew, Board Member
Jeffrey S. Niew is the Chief Operating Officer of Knowles Electronics. Mr. Niew joined Knowles in June 2000 and has been held various management positions among which he was responsible for the development and productization of the SiSonic MEMS based microphone. Prior to joining Knowles, he was the Business Development Manager for Littelfuse Incorporated, a global electronics manufacturer specializing in the consumer and automotive markets. In addition he held various engineering and marketing positions in the optoelectronics division of Hewlett-Packard. Mr. Niew has a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Dennis Roberson, Board Member
Dennis Roberson is Vice Provost, and Research Professor in Computer Science at Illinois Institute of Technology. In this capacity, he has responsibility for IIT’s relationships with its various corporate partners. Professor Roberson is an active researcher in the wireless networking arena and is a co-founder of IIT’s Wireless Network and Communications Research Center (WiNCom). He also assists with IIT’s technology transfer efforts, the development of new research centers, and technology-based business ventures. He currently serves on the boards of several technology-based companies, including four in the telecommunications industry.

Prior to IIT, he was EVP and CTO at Motorola. Professor Roberson has an extensive corporate career including major business and technology responsibilities at IBM, DEC (now part of HP), AT&T, and NCR. He is and has been involved with a wide variety of Technology, Cultural, Educational and Youth organizations currently including the FCC - TAC (Technology Advisory Council), the National Advisory Board for the Boy Scouts of America, and the Board of FIRST Robotics. He is a frequent speaker at universities, technical workshops, and conferences around the globe.

Professor Roberson has BS degrees in Electrical Engineering and Physics from Washington State University and a MSEE degree from Stanford.

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