Biography -
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Published on: 7/18/2007
Last Visited: 7/18/2007
Herb Engstrom,
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Herbert Engstrom, Ph.D.5974 Friar WaySan Jose, CA 95129(408) 406-3532herb@taborenterprises.com
Dr. Engstrom is an accomplished scientist and R&D manager with proven success in developing innovative products and instrumentation for Intel, Tencor Instruments, Verbatim, Xerox, and Control Data.Over the course of his career, he has led teams of scientists/engineers in developing tools to reduce test/assembly time and designing analyses and models that improved products in production.He has been quick to apply the latest technology and concepts to resolve a wide range of problems.
Throughout the course of his career, Dr. Engstrom has specialized in optical metrology, optical polarization analysis, optical and magnetic properties of materials, and ellipsometry with applications to disk drive, semiconductor and display technologies.In addition, he is accomplished in computer programming and has written many programs to support his models and analyses.
After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Engstrom spent two years with the US Peace Corps, teaching Physics at King George V School in Seremban, Malaysia.He also taught science using Malay language.Returning to the University of California at Berkeley, Dr. Engstrom received his Ph.D. in Physics and then moved to the University of Paris to complete a two-year, post-doctoral research fellowship, conducting fundamental research into the optical properties of defects in insulators.Years later, he used his language skills to deliver marketing presentations in French for Tencor Instruments.
Upon completion of his research fellowship, Dr. Engstrom performed fundamental experimental research into the optical properties of insulators and semiconductors related to new energy sources at Brookhaven and Oak Ridge National Laboratories.Wanting to return home to California, he took his first position in the private sector as an Engineering Manager for Sperry Univac/Magnetic Peripherals.He managed two groups developing, integrating and testing read/write heads and channels for magnetic and optical disk drives.
When the company relocated to Colorado, Dr. Engstrom joined Verbatim, a division of Eastman Kodak, to manage a group developing alignment and test equipment for magneto-optic heads for an optical disk drive.Then, as a senior staff research scientist at Tencor Instruments (now, KLA-Tencor), he analyzed reflectance and polarization data from thin film structures on semiconductor wafers.
Over the next three years he directed product engineering in one facility as ownership was transferred to several companies.As Director of Product Engineering he monitored production problems, conducted yield and statistical analysis, and designed experiments to improve product design for Optreon, Xerox, and Read-Rite.In 2001, Dr. Engstrom founded Tabor Enterprises, a contracting firm providing services for measuring the optical properties of materials and for product design.
Career History and Highlighted Accomplishments
President/Founder, Tabor Enterprises, 2001 -2004
Having seen the research facility sold many times in sequence, Dr. Engstrom decided to apply his skills to starting his own contracting firm.
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As a contractor, Dr. Engstrom was asked to make the measurement using a technique outlined in a reference on liquid crystal technology.Realizing this technique would be inaccurate, he designed and assembled an alternative apparatus and wrote a large computer program to input reflectance data.
Using his technique on 20 samples, Dr. Engstrom demonstrated a 97% correlation with measurements taken by the manufacturer prior to filling the gap with liquid crystal.Measurements were within the 2% specification.Intel immediately incorporated the program into their production.
Director of Product Engineering, Read-Rite/Teneca, 1998 -2001
During this three-year period, Dr. Engstrom managed product development, production problems, and solution development at a single facility.Hired initially by Read-Rite, he remained at the facility as it exchanged hands several times.He conducted yield and statistical analysis to improve product design and enhance yield for new owners, Optreon, Xerox, and Nova Crystals.
For Optreon, he managed a team designing test procedures for the company's photodetector.He developed tests and statistical analysis for quality control and improvement for Optreon and for the Xerox photofinisher, which used acoustic inkjet technology.In addition, he performed yield analysis and project timelines for Read-Rite's optical disk transducer.
Part of his responsibilities included developing plans such as Gannt charts.Dr. Engstrom quickly realized that he could get a better estimate of the progress of a project if he assigned a probability distribution function to the time for completion of each task.Using Fourier analysis, he demonstrated that the probability function for completion of all projects was the sum of the most probable times of all tasks.By demonstrating when the project would be completed under various circumstances, he improved project planning.
Senior Staff Research Scientist, Tencor Instruments/KLA-Tencor, 1990-1998
Based on his previous work related to impurity distribution in laser annealed silicon, Dr. Engstrom was recruited to test and measure thin film structures on semiconductor wafers for a company that became a division of a $1.4B manufacturer of semiconductor test equipment.
Tencor Instruments, prior to its merger with KLA, had developed a reflectometer for measuring optical properties and thicknesses of films used in the semiconductor industry.Standard film files, giving the optical properties, were often nonexistent for new materials in the industry.Dr. Engstrom developed new analytical models and a computer program for all of the films provided by customers.As a result, he was credited by the Director of one sales office for increasing sales of its thin film monitor by over $1M in one year.
In another situation, Tencor had developed a non-contact instrument for measuring surface electrical resistance of semiconductor wafers.He became part of the group charged with increasing sensitivity of the instruments as well as cutting the time for measuring resistance.He developed a more sophisticated model of the electronic circuit of the probe head to include stray capacitance, thereby increasing sensitivity.In addition, he used a new multidimensional interpolation algorithm to improve the speed of calculation.As a result, he increased sensitivity by an order of magnitude and cut the time to determine resistivity by a factor of 1,000.
Optical Engineering Manager, Verbatim, 1985-1990
Dr. Engstrom was recruited to Verbatim, the $10M division of parent, Eastman Kodak, to direct the optical head development team for an optical disk drive.He was charged with directing the team in developing, assembling, and testing automated alignment and test equipment for a magneto-optic read/write head in the optical disk drive.
At the time he joined the development department, the optical head, consisting of 20 to 25 optical, mechanical, and electrical components, required about six hours to assemble.Engineers had been literally pushing components into position with toothpicks before gluing them into place.Dr. Engstrom designed and assembled micrometer manipulators to position the parts.He wrote the software to acquire and analyze test data, allowing alignment to optimize sensitivity in real time.As a result, he reduced the time to assemble optical heads from six hours to 15 minutes.
Engineering Manager, Sperry Univac/Control Data, 1981 -1985
After working with two national laboratories, Dr. Engstrom wanted to return to California.He was recruited to the disk drive division of Sperry Univac and remained with the facility as it was sold to Magnetic Peripherals, a subsidiary of $2B Control Data.He was charged with developing, integrating, and testing the read/write head and channel for both magnetic and optical disk drives.
The manager of the Electronics Department wanted to apply a signal processing device, called a transversal equalizer, to the channel, something that previously had never been done.At the time, device parameters were being determined by trial and error.Dr. Engstrom realized that what was needed was an output pulse that did not need a specific functional dependence on time.Rather, it required a certain shape.It had to be symmetrical and narrow.Creating a technique he called "shape function analysis," he optimized these properties while allowing the use of traditional statistica
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