Bernhard Knott
Head of Backend Innovation
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Bernhard Knott is the Head of the Infineon Technologies Backend Innovation group. He is responsible for new Package Concepts, Prototyping, new Materials, Simulation and Virtual Prototyping. Until 2016 he was leading the Package Development for Sensors and Waferlevel Package Development in Regensburg, Germany. Prior joining the Backend Organization, he held several Management Position in Frontend Technology dealing with BiCMOS Technologies, Sensors and Innovation projects. After receiving his Diploma in Physics from the University of Regensburg, he started his career in Semiconductor Industry in 1997 in developing an embedded NVM Technology. Bernhard holds several patents and patent applications in the area of FE Technology, Sensors and Packaging.
Bernhard Knott is the Head of the Backend Innovation group at Infineon Technologies AG, Germany. After receiving his Diploma in Physics, he started his career in Semiconductor Industry in 1997 in Frontend and later in Backend Technology Development. Bernhard holds several patents and patent applications in the area of FE Technology, Sensors and Packaging.
Company Profile
Here at Infineon, we combine entrepreneurial success with responsible action to make life easier, safer, and greener. Barely visible, semiconductors have become an indispensable part of everyday life. We play a key role in shaping a better future – with microelectronics that link the real and the digital world. Our semiconductors enable efficient energy management, smart mobility, as well as secure, seamless communications in an increasingly connected world. Infineon designs, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of semiconductors and system solutions. The focus of its activities is on automotive and industrial electronics, communication and information technologies, IoT, sensor technology and security. The product range comprises standard components, software, customer-specific solutions for devices and systems, as well as specific components for digital, analog, and mixed-signal applications.
David Clark
VP Product Marketing
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David joined Amkor in 2013 and is currently responsible for Global Product Marketing, Market Analytics and Market Strategy. Prior to joining Amkor, David has held various sales management, product development and engineering positions at FlipChip International (FCI), Leica Microsystems and Agilent Technologies. David has been granted 5 patents in Optoelectronics and Device Packaging and holds a BEng Honors Degree in Electronic, Electrical and Optoelectronic Engineering from University of Glasgow.
Company Profile
Amkor Technology, Inc. is the world’s largest US headquartered OSAT (outsourced semiconductor assembly and test). Since its founding in 1968, Amkor has pioneered the outsourcing of IC packaging and test services and is a strategic manufacturing partner for the world’s leading semiconductor companies, foundries, and electronics OEMs. Amkor provides turnkey services for the communication, automotive and industrial, computing, and consumer industries, including but not limited to smartphones, electric vehicles, data centers, artificial intelligence and wearables. Amkor’s operational base includes production facilities, product development centers and sales and support offices located in key electronics manufacturing regions in Asia, Europe and the United States. Learn more at https://amkor.com
Joseph Roybal
Senior Vice President of Global Backend Operations
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Joseph Roybal is the Senior Vice President of Global Backend Operations at Wolfspeed aligning backend manufacturing roadmaps, production strategies, and capital allocation to scale efficiently with Wolfspeed’s exponential growth. He leads an expanding worldwide team focused on systemic manufacturing solutions, SiC package innovation, strategic partnerships with OSATs, and effective product manufacturing solutions for all Wolfspeed businesses and major SiC backend operations.
Company Profile
Wolfspeed (NYSE: WOLF) leads the market in the worldwide adoption of Silicon Carbide and GaN technologies. We provide industry-leading solutions for efficient energy consumption and a sustainable future. Wolfspeed’s product families include Silicon Carbide materials, power-switching devices and RF devices targeted for various applications such as electric vehicles, fast charging, 5G, renewable energy and storage, and aerospace and defense. We unleash the power of possibilities through hard work, collaboration and a passion for innovation. Learn more at www.wolfspeed.com.
Wolfspeed® is a registered trademark of Wolfspeed, Inc.
Dieter Liesabeths
SVP Product
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Dieter is a senior management leader in the semiconductor industry with over 30 years of experience in Sales, Marketing, Business Development, new technology introduction and new product definition.
Prior to joining VisIC Technologies he served for ten years at Wolfspeed GmbH as a Senior Sales & Marketing Director and built first the industrial and later the automotive department with an automotive application center.
Dieter drove the industry’s conversion from Silicon to Wide Band Gap (SiC), by building an eco-system to support the fast-switching Wide Band Gap devices and partnering with industry leaders for creating a multi-billion USD business.
Dieter holds an engineering degree Dipl.-Ing. (TH) from the University of RWTH Aachen, Germany.
Company Profile
VisIC Technologies has a decade of experience in creating, developing, and advancing concepts based on cutting-edge Gallium Nitride-on-silicon technology. We develop solutions that help reduce energy waste in power conversion systems, with a focus on battery electric vehicles (BEV). Our patented D3GaN technology – Direct Drive D-mode GaN – addresses the automotive industry’s cost, supply, sustainability, reliability, quality, and performance needs.
With our D3GaN technology, BEV can save up to 50% on power losses over the driving cycle of the electric car, thus reducing battery cost and increasing driving range and performance. This solution also reduces the cooling system requirements and the size of the BEV inverter.
VisIC Technologies has produced the first GaN-based transistors used in automotive inverters. By utilizing the GaN on Silicon technology, we address the supply chain concern as we are using existing semiconductor high-volume production lines.
Markus Bolte, Ph.D.
Partner
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Markus co-leads AlixPartners’ global semiconductor practice. With 20 years of global business experience, he serves clients on their business and operating model transformation and change journeys. He is driven by a passion for measurable impact and the desire to help the semiconductors industry navigate through the disruptions of our age. Before joining Alixpartners, Markus led the strategy at a global technology leader. He started his consulting career at two leading European management consultancy firms. Before joining the consulting world, Markus led a research group for supercomputing and nanophysics research utilizing Nvidia’s CUDA to accelerate complex nanophysics simulations and collaborating with institutions globally. Markus holds a PhD and Masters in Physics and Computer Science.
Company Profile
AlixPartners is a results-driven global consulting firm that specializes in helping businesses respond quickly and decisively to their most critical challenges—from urgent performance improvement to complex restructuring, from risk mitigation to accelerated transformation. These are the moments when everything is on the line—a sudden shift in the market, an unexpected performance decline, a time-sensitive deal, a fork-in-the-road decision. We stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients until the job is done, and only measure our success in terms of the results we deliver.
AlixPartners is a results-driven global consulting firm that specializes in helping businesses respond quickly and decisively to their most critical challenges—from urgent performance improvement to complex restructuring, from risk mitigation to accelerated transformation. These are the moments when everything is on the line—a sudden shift in the market, an unexpected performance decline, a time-sensitive deal, a fork-in-the-road decision. We stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients until the job is done, and only measure our success in terms of the results we deliver.
Clients call us when they need pragmatism and cut-through to solve their most complex challenges arising from a continually disrupted world. Our services cover Artificial Intelligence, Corporate Strategy & Transformation, Data Governance, ESG, Growth, Investigations, Disputes & Advisory Services, Mergers & Acquisitions, Organizational Transformation, Supply-Chain Management & Operations, Technology, Transformative Leadership and Turnaround and Restructuring.
Rob Willems
General Manager & VP Operations, BelGaN BV
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Mr Willems achieved his engineering degree in Applied Physics at the HTS Dordrecht (the Netherlands) in 1982. He got an additional degree in business economics at university of Eindhoven (the Netherlands)
He joined Philips Semiconductors (Nijmegen, The Netherlands) in 1983 as a process engineer / production manager. In 1992 he joined Mietec-Alcatel, a semiconductor company in Belgium, that became Alcatel Microelectronics, and was acquired by AMI Semiconductor in 2002 and ON Semiconductor in 2008.
In February 2022 he joined BelGaN that acquired part of onsemi Belgium as General Manager and VP Operations.
Throughout the past 30+ years he was active in various roles in operations, leading operational teams to achieve their operational targets while running continuous improvement projects on operational efficiency, quality, processes, costs, as well as projects in the areas of automation, capacity expansion, technology upgrades, in an automotive qualified environment.
Company Profile
Be a leading automotive qualified open foundry in the Wide Band Gap ecosystem.
Enabling our customers to develop and manufacture unique solutions for a sustainable electrified future.
Creating value through our employees’ enthusiasm, talents and commitment.
BelGaN, as a WBG foundry in Europe, enables and services a rapidly expanding GaN-ecosystem in Europe (‘GaN-Valley’) and beyond with innovative and high-quality WBG semiconductor technologies and a highly efficient value-add 6 and 8 inch manufacturing facility. BelGaN adds unique services such as customer-driven Technology-as-a-Service (customized processes), Manufacturing-as-a-Service, and Quality-as-a-Service to the traditional foundry business model whereas we cooperate with suppliers and customers to deliver automotive quality products to the market. BelGaN develops and bring-to-market a rich roadmap of GaN & SiC platforms, driven by our customers’ needs and our core strengths and vision. We partner with leading universities and RTO’s in an Open Innovation model to prepare our innovation roadmap and bring differentiating innovations to our customers.
Manufacturing Facility: Wafer fab with over 4500 m2 of clean room space, located on a 44.000 m2campus.
Fab: 6 & 8 inch (planned).
Production: GaN Technologies & 0.35 µm to 2 µm Low, Medium, and High Voltage Analog CMOS and BCD Technologies.
BelGaN BV
Westerring 15
9700 Oudenaarde
Belgium
+32 55 332211
Edoardo Merli
Executive Vice President, Power Transistor Sub-Group Automotive and Discrete Group
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Edoardo Merli is STMicroelectronics’ Executive Vice President, Power Transistor Sub-Group Vice President and has held this position since January 2022.
Merli joined STMicroelectronics in 1998 as Head of System Architecture in the Telecom Wireline Division. In 2002, he formed and led ST’s WLAN Business Unit.
Merli was appointed Director of the Automotive Product Group in 2007, where he took responsibility for the RF Competence Center & Connectivity Business Unit and subsequently for the Car Radio Business Unit. In 2012, Merli was promoted to Marketing & Application Director for ST’s Automotive and Discrete Group in Greater China and South Asia. In 2016, his responsibilities were extended to include the Company’s automotive activities in Korea. In 2017, Merli was promoted to Power Transistor Macro-Division General Manager and Group Vice President of ST’s Automotive and Discrete Group.
Merli has filed several patents on ADSL, multi-service routers, switches, and
throughput management, and authored numerous publications in the areas of Telecommunications, Automotive, and Connectivity.
Edoardo Merli was born in Parma, Italy, in 1962, and graduated with a degree in Electronic Engineering from University of Bologna in 1989.
Company Profile
Avinash Kashyap Ph.D
VP & GM of the Discrete & Wide Bandgap Power BU
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Dr. Avinash (Avi) Kashyap is the VP & GM of the Discrete & Wide Bandgap Power BU at Renesas Electronics. He leads a global organization, responsible for P&L, engineering, marketing, applications and revenue generation of power devices incl. SiC, IGBTs, MOSFETs and GaN for the automotive and industrial markets.
Prior to his current role, he was Director of Silicon Carbide and Power Discretes at Microchip Technology where he led engineering and marketing groups focused on product lines that included SiC & Si FETs and diodes, rad-hard devices and RF power switches.
Previously, Dr. Kashyap was leading several power device programs at the GE Global Research Center in Niskyuna, NY. He has been involved in the development of SiC technology since its infancy for 2 decades including pioneering work on compact modeling, SiC integrated circuits and radiation-hardened devices. He has authored more than 35 peer-reviewed publications and has over 20 patents granted or pending. Dr. Kashyap holds an MS & PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. He is a senior member of the IEEE and a member of the Arkansas Academy of Electrical Engineers.
Company Profile
Christine Dunbar
SVP Global Sales
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Christine Dunbar, formerly Senior Vice President of Global Sales at IQE, the leading supplier of compound semiconductor wafer products and advanced material solutions to the global semiconductor industry. Christine joined IQE in August 2022.
Christine was previously at GlobalFoundries where she held various executive roles driving GF business growth towards the October 2022 IPO. She joined GlobalFoundries in July 2015 with the IBM Microlectronics Division acquisition, as the Vice President of Product Management for the RF Business Unit.
Christine graduated from Cornell University in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering and has held various engineering, technical management, and executive positions throughout her career, including leadership roles in Sales, Business Development & Semiconductor Manufacturing Operations. In 2018 Christine was nominated for the Global Semiconductor Association’s inaugural “Rising Woman of Influence” award.
Christine is passionate about serving as an ambassador for her employers and the semiconductor industry writ large thru active participation and speaking engagements at various industry forums. Christine is also a passionate advocate for women in semiconductors, and has sponsored the establishment of women’s resource groups at IBM, GlobalFoundries and IQE.
Christine is also active in her community supporting causes important to her. She is a founding member of the Leadership Now Project, a group of non-partisan business leaders committed to the health of the US democracy, established in 2017. Christine also serves on the Board of Directors at the Boys and Girls Club of Burlington, Vermont. She lives in Shelburne, Vermont USA with her partner & two teenage children.
Company Profile
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