Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Certification
Patents
Publications
Timeline
Generic

Bradley Smith

Temecula,CA

Summary

Operations/Engineering leader with 20+ years experience in optimizing manufacturing performance in the semiconductor and plastics industries. Track-record in technical problem-solving, continuous improvement, and aligning business systems with operational requirements

Overview

31
31
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification

Work History

VP Operations and GM

Skorpios Technologies
Temecula, CA
01.2023 - 01.2024
  • Led installation, facilitization, and start-up of 100+ tools at new site for $36M/yr business
  • Worked with City, County, State regulators to permit site
  • Built out and oversaw Manfucaturing, Facilities, Engineering, EHS, Supply Chain teams
  • Constructed and executed to monthly revenue plan
  • Negotitated supplier contracts.

Site Leader for Decommissioning

International Rectifier / Infineon Technologies
Temecula, CA
01.2022 - 01.2023
  • Facilitated sale of Temecula site in conjunction with legal team
  • Planned and executed orderly decommissioning and relocation of 450+ production tools.

Director GaN Epi Operations

Infineon Technologies
Mesa, AZ
01.2019 - 01.2022
  • Accountable for Productivity, Cost, Quality of GaN Epi on Si substrates
  • Led Engineering, Maintenance, and Operator teams in $7M/yr operation
  • Transformed research-oriented organization into a successful manufacturing operation
  • Resolved crippling defectivity problem using structured problem solving
  • Ensured Manufacturing Readiness for launch of Infineon’s first commercial GaN product
  • Decommissioned site operations after decision to consolidate development and manufacturing outside US.

Director Manufacturing Engineering, Photolithography

International Rectifier / Infineon Technologies
Temecula, CA
01.2018 - 01.2022
  • Led team of Process and Equipment engineers responsible for Lithography operations
  • Accountable for Equipment Availability, Cost Management and Excursion prevention
  • Provided organization and structure for achieving success and helping site achieved all monthly goals for 4-years running
  • Reduced department scrap rate by 50% while achieving record fab/device yields
  • Replace large 3rd-party Stepper service provider with a smaller but more capable provider, paying immediate dividends in cost, equipment availability, and personnel development.

Engineering Module Mgr, Films and Diffusion

International Rectifier / Infineon Technologies
Temecula, CA
01.2012 - 01.2018
  • Successfully led team of Process and Equipment engineers responsible for single-wafer PVD and PECVD as well as Atmospheric and sub-Atmospheric furnace operations
  • Accountable for Equipment Availability, Cost Management and Excursion prevention
  • Consistently raised expectations for quality, productivity, and breadth of thinking
  • Consistently achieved budgetary goals by exercising discipline and executing against cost savings opportunities
  • Identified and justified investment opportunities enabling the team to virtually eliminate quality excursions
  • Manufacturing Landscape improvements.

Change Control Manager (PCRB Chair)

Qimonda (formerly Infineon Technologies)
Sandston, VA
01.2008 - 01.2009
  • Managed change control process for documenting, reviewing and implementing 2500+ process changes and experiments initiated by 250+ process engineers
  • Defined and maintained key-performance indicators (KPIs) for the change management process
  • Presented strategy to customers and quality auditors
  • Instilled a culture of ownership and continuous improvement while directly managing a team MES specialists
  • Reduced process change implementation time from 5 to 0.5 days by streamlining the implementation process, communicating expectations, and increasing visibility and accountability.

Process Integration Engineer

Qimonda (formerly Infineon Technologies)
01.2004 - 01.2008
  • Integrated 50 process steps in STI module with factory start-up and technology transfer experience across two factories and three technologies (110nm, 90nm, and 75nm trench-based DRAM in 200mm and 300mm factories)
  • Organized and led ~20 process engineers in proactive and reactive yield enhancement activities that resulted in >$100M in additional revenue
  • Exceeded all First Silicon yield goals during factory start-up and technology transfer projects
  • Increased yield by ~10% on 110nm technology by introducing yield-optimized alignment offsets as leader of cross-functional team responsible for improving critical layer misalignment (AA-DT)
  • Reduced wafer scrap by 50%, increased tool uptime by 10%, and improved edge-yield throughout Qimonda’s manufacturing sites by identifying root cause and implementing process changes to reduce wafer-bevel damage caused by complex process interactions
  • Established Qimonda-wide methodology for quantitatively comparing process robustness with respect to bevel damage
  • Introduced an automated Experiment Management system integrated with the factory MES and used by 250+ engineers for process and yield learning activities
  • Gathered requirements and use cases from cross-functional and international customer base
  • Defined delivery packages, secured user and IT resources, and tested delivered functionality
  • Maintained issues list and prioritized efforts of local and international IT resources
  • 99% of planned experiments (6500+) executed using this automated experiment system
  • Reduced factory headcount requirements by 1%; reduced cycle time by 2%
  • Enabled quicker learning by reducing human error and by supporting more powerful experiments.

Films Process Engineer

Qimonda (formerly Infineon Technologies)
01.1998 - 01.2004
  • Mastered a variety of thin film deposition processes including silane- and TEOS-based PECVD, ozone-TEOS SACVD, and Polycide
  • Set department benchmark for productivity, creative problem-solving, and technical acumen
  • Initiated and implemented numerous process improvement projects (e.g., WSix defectivity, Centura100 project, H2-plasma cleaning, GC pitting) that increased yield, throughput, and tool availability while reducing process variation and operating costs
  • Revenue gain from WSix defectivity reduction alone exceeded > $100M
  • Developed semi-automated procedure for accurately tuning the Polycide process that resulted in better tool availability and reduced variation
  • The procedure was based on multivariate models describing the relationship between input parameters (time, temperature, gas flow) and output parameters
  • Directed Films engineers in a structured and comprehensive risk assessment / risk mitigation effort for all Films area processes
  • Effort resulted in direct or indirect monitoring and control of all critical process parameters and reduced excursion risk
  • (Advanced Process Control / Fault Detection and Classification)
  • Ensured department readiness to support new technology introduction and volume ramp
  • Identified equipment/process requirements and met availability and capacity requirements per schedule
  • Crafted site SPC policy as member of SPC Council, ensuring factory-wide SPC implementation as an integrated step in product and technology introduction
  • Created Recipe Documentation System (RDS), providing full traceability of recipe changes
  • Direct experience with most CVD and PVD processes on Applied Materials 5200 Centura and Endura platforms (SiO2, Si3N4, HDP, BSG, BPSG, DARC, poly-Si, WSi2, W, AlCu, Ti, and TiN)
  • Owned recipe development on Bio-Rad FTIR and Philips XRF analysis tools.

Process Engineer

Toray Plastics America
N.Kingstown, RI
01.1993 - 01.1995
  • Solved technical issues and drove continuous improvement on 8-m bi-axially oriented polypropylene cast film line and slitter
  • Drove recipe optimization, implemented statistical process control, and improved standard operating procedures
  • Developed and coordinated testing and monitoring of production performance
  • Reduced downtime, and improved product quality
  • The improved line stability enabled a capacity increase of ~25%
  • Achieved 15% increase in 1st pass yield by reducing process variation, identifying and eliminating defects, and establishing best known methods for slitter operation.

Education

Master of Science in Chemical Engineering -

North Carolina State University

Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering -

University of Virginia

Skills

  • Manufacturing Operations
  • Engineering Leadership
  • Structured Problem Solving
  • Continuous Improvement
  • Experiment Design & Analysis
  • Change Management
  • MES
  • Proficient in Statistical Analysis, Experiment Design, Statistical Process Control, linear, non-linear, and multiple regression, ANOVA, matched pairs analysis, analysis of covariance, JMP and Minitab
  • 8D, Risk Assessment and Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA); Lean Six Sigma methodology/DMAIC
  • MS Office, Project, Visio, JMP, Minitab, Visual Basic programming
  • Operations Management
  • Cross-Functional Team Leadership
  • Operational Leadership

Certification

Lean Six Sigma Black-belt certificate, Virginia Commonwealth University 2009

Patents

Method Of Removing PECVD Residues Of Fluorinated Plasma Using In-Situ H2 Plasma, 2001P11900US01

Publications

TiNQimonda’sInfineon’sTorayAlCuWSixWSixPolycidePolycideInfineonInfineonInfineonInfineonInfineonInfineonInfineonNegotiatedManufacturingfacilitizationSkorpios
  • Optimizing Chamber Cleans for Better Film Deposition Performance, B.C. Smith, A. Young, Journal of the Electrochemical Society, v148, 721 (2001)
  • Ar/N2O Remote Plasma-Assisted Oxidation of Si(100): Plasma Chemistry, Growth Kinetics and Interfacial Reactions, B.C. Smith, A. Khandelwal, and H.H. Lamb, Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B, v18, 1757 (2000)
  • Ultrathin Silicon Oxynitride Films Grown by Ar/N2O Remote Plasma Processing, B.C. Smith and H.H. Lamb, Journal of Applied Physics, v83, 7635 (1998)
  • Remote Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition of SiO2 Using Ar/N2O and SiH4, C.H. Courtney, B.C. Smith, H.H. Lamb, Journal of the Electrochemical Society, v145, 3957 (1998)

Timeline

VP Operations and GM

Skorpios Technologies
01.2023 - 01.2024

Site Leader for Decommissioning

International Rectifier / Infineon Technologies
01.2022 - 01.2023

Director GaN Epi Operations

Infineon Technologies
01.2019 - 01.2022

Director Manufacturing Engineering, Photolithography

International Rectifier / Infineon Technologies
01.2018 - 01.2022

Engineering Module Mgr, Films and Diffusion

International Rectifier / Infineon Technologies
01.2012 - 01.2018

Change Control Manager (PCRB Chair)

Qimonda (formerly Infineon Technologies)
01.2008 - 01.2009

Process Integration Engineer

Qimonda (formerly Infineon Technologies)
01.2004 - 01.2008

Films Process Engineer

Qimonda (formerly Infineon Technologies)
01.1998 - 01.2004

Process Engineer

Toray Plastics America
01.1993 - 01.1995

Master of Science in Chemical Engineering -

North Carolina State University

Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering -

University of Virginia

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Bradley Smith