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SMD began operations in July 2001 as Stellar Display Corporation and developed a prototype 5-inch emissive flat panel display. We began our first non-display development program in May 2002 and changed the name to Stellar Micro Devices in July 2002. SMD continues to generate innovations in research projects funded by both private partners and government agencies for high power amplifiers, terahertz sources, hardened cold cathodes and various application of advanced X-ray sources. Some of our past government funding agencies are shown below.
In late 2007 SMD established Stellarray, Inc. to commercialize a patent-pending flat panel X-ray source for use in sterilization, security and medical imaging. The National Institute of Standards and Technology is supporting the development of this technology under the Advanced Technology Program (article).
SMD also supplies advanced field emission cold cathodes to commercial customers and can supply customers in the MEMS industry with hermetic packages sealed at room temperature. We do our work in a well-equipped 7,200 sq. ft. development and custom production facility in north Austin.
SMD¡¦s innovations are created by a multi-disciplinary staff, supported by skilled technicians for lithography, deposition, etch, measurement and test. SMD frequently teams with other innovators at leading universities.
Mark Eaton, President and CEO (SMD and Stellarray), has extensive experience commercializing technology and building organizations. Before SMD, he worked with several technology start-ups and served as Vice President for Strategy & Development at the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation. He was previously U.S. Vice Consul for Economic Affairs in Osaka, Japan and has served as an advisor to the Defense Manufacturing Board and Congressional Office of Technology Assessment. He was educated at Johns Hopkins (B.A., high honors), the School of Advanced International Studies (M.A., distinction) and Harvard Business School (Program for Management Development).
Dr. Burt Fowler, Chief Operating Officer, is an experienced manufacturing operations manager. He was the Operations Manager at Extreme Devices, Inc., a venture-funded company which developed cold cathode e-guns for cathode ray tubes in a 43,000 square-foot, Class 1000 fabrication facility. At Motorola, he was a Staff Scientist in the Advanced Products Research and Development Laboratory developing next-generation IC technology. Previously at Sematech, he was a Project Manager and Process Engineer focused on semiconductor manufacturing technology, semiconductor process development, statistical process control, and equipment development. Burt has also worked as Principal Engineer at Systems and Processes Engineering Corporation (SPEC), Austin, TX and was a founder of Austin Microsystems, Incorporated, a developer of fuel cell process technologies. Dr. Fowler earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.
Nate Potter, Packaging Director, has over 30 years experience in packaging and device development. He is a veteran of the Solid State Devices Lab of Sperry Research Center (high speed photodetectors using Si, Ge and InAs) the Sperry Microwave Lab (responsible for microwave TRAPATT), Sanders/Lockheed (Principal Engineer for doping and activation of ion implants in GaAs FET wafers), the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (Director of the Microfabrication Laboratory, where he developed processes for a diamond field emission flat panel display, a planarized mirror array spatial light modulator, a superconducting Multichip Module; and a cold weld indium bond process for flip chip bonding superconducting indium die to superconducting MCM's).
Dr. Ronald Hellmer, Test Director, earned his Ph.D. in mathematics form the University of New Mexico in 1992. From 1999-2003 he was in charge of the accelerated lifetime testing program for carbon field emitters at Extreme Devices Inc., where he also developed mathematical models for quantifying device performance. From 1998-1999 he was engineering manager at Focus Interconnect Technologies, where he developed process controls for commercial device packaging. From 1992-1998 he was a member of the technical staff at SI Diamond Technologies, where he worked on processes for solid state and field emission carbon device technologies. From 1976 to 1992 he was a senior technical associate at Sandia National Laboratories, where he performed mathematical modeling of plasma interactions with silicon.
Mr. Anthony Kloba, Manufacturing Director, spent 28 years at Zenith/Zenith Electronics in engineering positions, including manager, development engineering; manager, finishing engineering; and manager, process engineering. His expertise includes application engineering, cathode ray tube manufacturing, new product development, designing product life test programs, electrical test development, component and material outgassing, vacuum and electrical processing, ultra high vacuum systems, residual gas analysis and ion scattering spectrometry. After Zenith, Mr. Kloba became director of customer applications for Extreme Devices in Austin, a venture-funded developer of FEA cathodes for CRTs. Mr. Kloba earned his B.S. in Physics from DePaul University and his M.S. in Physics from Clemson University.
Outside Director:
Dr. Douglas B. MacGregor, now President of the Austin Wranglers indoor football organization, was a member of the Executive Committee at Dell Computer Corporation, where he ran several major divisions. He was previously President and CEO of Solbourne Computer Corporation and began his business career as a chip designer at Motorola. He earned his PhD. in Information Science from Kyoto University, Japan.
SMD and Stellarray offer an exciting place to work on the cutting edge of vacuum nanoelectronics. We require people with backgrounds in field emission electronics, MEMS, packaging, X-ray devices, lighting sources and displays. Please check here for open positions.