PEOPLE: Movers and shakers

30 Jan 2009

News of the latest appointments at Luceo Technologies, SiOnyx, MEMSCAP and Transmode.

A round-up of people news from around the industry.

• Luceo Technologies GmbH, a leading supplier of high-speed optical test & measurement equipment, announces the appointment of Rod Martin as Director of Sales & Marketing for EMEA & Asia-Pacific regions. Rod has more than 20 years experience in rf, microwave and fiber-optic technologies, having previously worked for major vendors of semiconductors, fiber-optic components, and test & measurement equipment.

"I hope to use my experience of working within large multi-national companies, to assist Luceo during the important volume ramp-up phase," said Rod. "Although Luceo already supplies product to many key customers, we expect to see a large increase in orders based on the optimized combination of functionality and price that the products offer". Rod commences his position at Luceo with immediate effect.

• SiOnyx, the leading innovator in shallow junction photonics - a patented semiconductor process coined ‘black silicon’ that radically alters the photonic properties of semiconductor devices - has added several leading image sensor scientists and engineers to its team and opened an engineering office in Beaverton, Oregon.

Dr. Homayoon Haddad, previously Vice President of Advanced Sensor & Pixel Development for MagnaChip Semiconductor, has joined SiOnyx as Vice President of Device Engineering. Leading the company’s west coast team, Dr. Haddad is responsible for next generation shallow junction detector and image sensor development. During his tenure with MagnaChip, Dr. Haddad managed the development of 2.2, 1.7, and 1.4 µm pixel technologies and released the first 1.75 µm color BSI sensor in 2007. Prior to MagnaChip, Dr. Haddad spent more than 20 years at Hewlett Packard and Agilent where he held a variety of technology management and engineering roles.

Dr. Haddad’s team consists of top engineers and scientists, each with decades of experience in the design, development and mass production of image sensors from industry leading companies such as Micron, Agilent, Avago and Texas Instruments.

SiOnyx CEO Stephen Saylor noted, "SiOnyx is fortunate to have acquired such outstanding talent with combined experience of more than 50 years in the image sensing and detecting market. Industry interest in devices made from black silicon is very encouraging, and Dr. Haddad and his team will be instrumental in accelerating the delivery of new products to market."

SiOnyx is producing devices that represent the first and only known, low cost, highly scalable platform for hyper-spectral imaging. The SiOnyx implant method is compatible with established semiconductor manufacturing processes and introduces no new material.

"Black silicon offers incredible promise in the sensing and detecting markets where engineers have suffered for decades with the limited response of silicon," said Dr. Haddad. "It’s 100 times more sensitive to light and incredibly thin, making Black Silicon a true breakthrough in the development of smaller, cheaper, high performance imaging systems."

• MEMSCAP, the leading provider of innovative solutions based on MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems) technology, announced today the appointment of Steve Wilcenski as General Manager of the Custom Products Business Unit. Steve holds a BS in Materials Science and Engineering from North Carolina State University, a Master of Science in Chemistry from Clemson University and an MBA from North Carolina State University. His extensive field expertise encompasses many key technologies such as MEMS, Nanotechnologies, lasers and LEDs, as well as crystal growth.

Engineer at JDS Uniphase prior to joining the MEMSCAP Group at the end of 2001, Steve has been entrusted with many positions from purely technical roles to team and high-technology programs management through sales and marketing responsibilities. Deputy General Manager of the Custom Products Business Unit since January 2007, his appointment as General Manager is in line with the logical progression of his career at MEMSCAP. The tasks entrusted to Steve fall within the global scope of growth and manufacturing of the business unit with a focus on keeping the business unit profitable, growing the customers and partners portfolio, as well as developing new programs and R&D vision.

• Transmode, a leading provider of optical networking solutions, announces that Sten Nordell, previously Chief Convergence Officer and VP Networks & Platform Strategy at Telenor Group, has been appointed as Transmode's new Chief Technology Officer (CTO). "I am pleased to welcome such an experienced professional as Sten Nordell to Transmode," said Karl Thedéen, Transmode's CEO. "He has a great track record in telecoms systems development, especially in the areas of Mobile Networks, IP, Ethernet and WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) and other relevant technologies that we wish to further develop and exploit."

Before his time working at Telenor, Nordell was a founder of, and Chief Technology Officer at, Utfors, the Nordic all IP/Ethernet based broadband service provider. Utfors was the first carrier to establish an architecture for a Nordic fibre network based on an all-IP oriented approach for communication services; Nordell himself was also closely involved in the early development of optical Ethernet in the mid-1990s.

In his new role at Transmode, Nordell will be working to further simplify the network model. "Ideally the transport layer will be an evolution of IP/Ethernet systems based on optical technologies, in which I have many years of experience," he said.

"I will be looking closely at how IP can work better with WDM. If there are too many layers in a communications system it can be difficult to manage efficiently. So I believe we must simplify these networks further, particularly by reducing the number of active layers. Transmode has already taken a significant step with its development of an Ethernet compatible transfer model."

Beyond his long and varied career in communications, Stockholm-based Nordell has a great love of sailing with the family and in recent years he has also enjoyed the experience of crewing four-masted sailing ships.