Frank Greer, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
NanoClear Technologies, Inc. (NCT)
Summary:
- Semiconductor professional with nearly 20 years of hands-on and executive management experience in semiconductor fabrication technologies, capital equipment design/construction/installation/qualification, and semiconductor facilities construction/operation/safety assurance maintenance
- Strong track record of building and leading successful teams as a project, task, and personnel manager.
- Excellent financial management skills ensuring consistent on-time and on-budget deliveries for a wide range of semiconductor capital equipment conception and constructions, microdevices for space flight, and unique enabling process technologies and their associated hardware
- Clear and concise in both written and verbal communications to a wide variety of technical and management audiences
- Successful fundraiser with over $4.6M in equity and debt investments raised to date.
Professional Experience:
NanoClear Technologies, Inc., Los Angeles, California (2014-present)
- Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder
- Increased valuation from founding to $12M at last equity raise and $20M at last convertible note cap
- Increased revenue to ~$1.5M/yr. on an annualized basis to achieve profitability during NCT core IP technology infusion
- Generated eight unique customer opportunities, three that were made revenue bearing
- Grew facilities from shared desk space in an incubator to a dedicated ~10,000 sq. ft. facility with cleanroom operating with ten major pieces of new and refurbished semiconductor capital equipment
- Filed ten NCT patents, US and international, with six granted
- Exclusively licensed two patents from Caltech
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California (2007-present)
- Deputy Manager of the Microdevices Laboratory (MDL), Process and Operations Lead (2014-Present)
- Examples of Operations Duties
- Develop and manage budgets for Operations and Safety Assurance Maintenance of MDL cleanroom facility
- Document critical process recipes and critical path usage patterns for MDL equipment to identify those needing backups
- Alternate COVID Building Coordinator for B302/MDL
- Develop MDL cleanroom scheduling protocols and Google sheets software to ensure occupancy limits and contact tracing were observed
- Examples of Planning Duties
- Develop annual prioritized equipment acquisitions list and five-year plans for MDL Management
- Specify and select major equipment for acquisition
- Examples of Reporting Duties
- Host MDL MMR/User Forum Meetings presenting Facilities, Operations, and Safety Updates to MDL User Community
- Responsible for B302/MDL Facilities Safety Management Plan Updates, annual California Air Resources Board (CARB) reports, and MDL annual report Support Group section to meet regulatory requirements
- Lead customer tours of the JPL Microdevices Laboratory
- Manager, Center for Infrared Sensors (August 2011-January 2013)
- Managed finances, management reporting, and technical research for Industrial Infrared Detector Consortium involving JPL, Army Night Vision Laboratory, Naval Research Laboratory, and eight Industrial Company partners
- Principal Investigator for Infrared Detector and Systems Development SURP
- Subject Matter Expert: Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) and Atomic Layer Etching (ALE)
Intermolecular, Inc. San Jose, California (2013-2014)
- Senior Manager, Vapor Technology
- Managed budget and team of nine experienced engineers to develop novel atomic layer deposition-based processes for Internal Research and Development (IR&D) applications, deliver to two Customer Development Programs (CDP), and to design/build a novel combinatorial Atomic Layer Deposition equipment process and hardware development
Novellus Systems, Inc., San Jose, CA (2002-2007)
- iALD Product and Preclean Technology Manager
- Directed technology, hardware, and applications design, construction, installation, and development for iALD (ion-induced atomic layer deposition), Physical Vapor Deposition, and Plasma Preclean in partnership with five major microelectronics manufacturers
- Managed 7-member team of engineers and technicians
Education:
Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, 2002, University of California at Berkeley
B.S. in Chemical Engineering, 1997, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Awards:
- JPL Team, Voyager, and Mariner Awards
- Team: For spearheading the successful reopening of the Microdevices Laboratory and building 302
- Voyager: For strong leadership for the WFIRST/AFTA Project, Microfluidic Electrospray Propulsion MDL Emitters fabrication, and the MOCVD Decommissioning
- Mariner: Developed and managed the VISTA Industrial Consortium with 8 commercial companies and 2 national labs
- Team: The VISTA (Vital Infrared Sensor Technology Acceleration) Program
- NASA Board Award for NASA New Technology Report no. 45911 and 47422: “Real time monitoring of indium bump reflow and oxide removal enabling optimization of indium bump morphology”
- NASA Board Award for NASA New Technology Report no. 45725: “Fluoropolymer-Based Microfluidic Devices for Extreme and Extraterrestrial Environments”
Professional Activities:
- Member, American Vacuum Society, Electrochemical Society, Materials Research Society, and SPIE
- Reviewer for IEEE Transactions on Electronics Packaging Manufacturing, Journal of Physical Chemistry, and Nano Letters
Patents:
- Over 30 Granted US Patents
Peer-reviewed publications:
- Over 20 peer reviewed articles in journals such as Nature Materials and Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology.
- Over 30 NASA New Technology Reports
Invited and Contributed Conference Talks/Posters:
- Invited speaker at three international meetings on Atomic Layer Deposition/Atomic Layer Etching
- Invited lecturer (3 times) at UC Berkeley Chemical Engineering Department