WILL TONG, PHD
Summary
- Experienced and innovative professional with a strong background in semiconductor manufacturing and AI algorithm development.
- Possesses extensive knowledge in semiconductor metrology and inspection, along with a broad network in advanced semiconductor R&D.
- Demonstrated leadership skills as Chair of the SPIE Microlithography: Alternative Lithographic Technologies Symposium from 2011-13, successfully leading cross-functional teams and effectively communicating technical concepts to diverse stakeholders.
- Proven track record of contributing to the field with over 23 patents and more than 40 co-authored papers. (See Patents and Publications section on left)
- Committed to continuous improvement and staying up-to-date with emerging technologies and trends to deliver cutting-edge solutions. (See Certifications section on left)
Overview
27
27
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Senior Data Scientist (e-commerce: Targeting and Personalization)
Rakuten Rewards
04.2019 - 12.2023
- Partnered with internal customers to translate needs into requirements
- Then built A.I Proof-of-concept models to fulfill these requirements
- After iterations, deployed final models
- The common theme of these models was that they improved customer engagement
- Examples:
- (1) Email open rate model: Improved targeting of customers: Boosted email-click rate by more than 5x
- (2) Store embeddings: Vectorizes store characteristics into a low-dimensional space: Now broadly used in Rakuten Rewards for improving both personalization of ads and targeting of customers
- (3) Coupon ranking model: Predicts the popularity of coupons before any use: Widely employed in personalization, churn prevention
Data Scientist (Real Estate)
Housecanary
08.2016 - 10.2018
- Built and maintained nation-wide rental time-series and rental model to predict rental prices across the nation
- Now a key piece of Housecanary's offering
- Developed Days-On-Market (DOM) model for real estate sales
- Built text extraction to document upgrades of properties
Senior Materials Research Scientist (E-beam optics)
KLA
10.2010 - 04.2014
- Go-to person for materials science problems and failure analysis in the REBL program
- Led failure analysis team (e.g., XPS, X-section SEM, AFM) to find root cause of device failure
- Solved show-stopping charging problem by developing a ALD deposited tantalum oxide film for draining charges on electro-optical MEMS (click to see article)
- Won R&D 100 Award
- Diagnosed root cause of cathode degradation
- Traced problem to insufficient vacuum
- Devised solution > getter pump
- Led next generation e-beam cathode development
- Collaborated with Japanese and US national labs to prototype Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) cathodes
Research Scientist (Nanomanufacturing)
Hewlett-Packard Company
03.2003 - 05.2009
- Technical liaison between HP Labs (Palo Alto) and HP Inkjet Fab (Corvallis, OR)
- Co-PI of $5M/5-year IARPA nano electrics funded program to fabricate nano imprinted memory devices
- Integrated process and fabricated first nanoscale memristor devices in two different sites
- Led 40-member X-functional team across two sites to successfully complete all deliverables
- Led to new application direction with National Labs
- Interfaced directly with external customer (IARPA)
Staff Metrology Engineer (Photomask)
Applied Materials
02.2000 - 05.2002
- Led process development metrology of advanced photomask (CD-SEM and Alignment/Registration)
- Automated and maintained the software that generated the daily SPC report of production tools
Staff Scientist (EUVL Masks)
Lawrence Livermore National Lab (EUV LLC)
05.1997 - 02.2000
- Led cross-functional project team including members from Intel and Motorola to develop Low-Thermal Expansion Mask (LTEM) substrate
- Modified Mo/Si deposition chamber to drive down defects by 3 orders of magnitude
- Partnered with mask community to establish standards for EUV mask blanks
Education
Ph.D. - Physical Chemistry
UCLA
Skills
- Hands-on experience in mask metrology tools (AMAT)
- Vendor management: Drove development of EUVL photomasks with mask vendors (LLNL)
- Nanoimprint, e-beam, and EUVL developments
- Predictive modeling: ML (xgboost) and DNN (Tensorflow/Keras, Pytorch)
- Churn, price prediction, image classification models See https://githubcom/williamtong
- Hands-on experience in cleanroom device fabrication (AMAT, HP, KLA, LBNL)
- Managed successful relationships with customers (KLA-TSMC, HP-IARPA, LLNL-Intel-Moto-AMD)
- Broad network in semiconductor R&D
Awards
R&D 100 Award , R&D Magazine 2013, Nanocomposite charge-drain coating for electron-optical MEMS KLA/Argonne NL
Selected Projects
1. CNN models for image defect detection and classification (click link below to see)
https://github.com/williamtong/TILDA_defect_classification
- Trained 4-class defect identification CNN model has an accuracy of 61%, against a baseline of 25%. Achieved 73% percent for "object" class defects.
- Trained 2-class defect detection CNN model with an ROC-AUC of 93%, Precision ("good" class) = 96%, and Recall (" defect" class) = 58%.
2. Name: Wine recommender and price predictor (click link below to see)
https://github.com/williamtong/wine_review_model
- Build wine-price predictor from score and label/ origin information, with MdAPE = 20.6% and R2 = 0.435
- Build consumer wine recommender based on critics' reviews.
Patents and Publications
Google scholar page:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZiFWphd3VUQC&hl=en
Certification
I never stop upgrading my skill set.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/willtong/details/certifications/
Languages
Chinese (Mandarin)
Full Professional
Italian
Professional Working
Timeline
Senior Data Scientist (e-commerce: Targeting and Personalization)
Rakuten Rewards
04.2019 - 12.2023
Data Scientist (Real Estate)
Housecanary
08.2016 - 10.2018
Senior Materials Research Scientist (E-beam optics)
KLA
10.2010 - 04.2014
Research Scientist (Nanomanufacturing)
Hewlett-Packard Company
03.2003 - 05.2009
Staff Metrology Engineer (Photomask)
Applied Materials
02.2000 - 05.2002
Staff Scientist (EUVL Masks)
Lawrence Livermore National Lab (EUV LLC)
05.1997 - 02.2000
Ph.D. - Physical Chemistry
UCLA
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