About Me

Professional Bio

Dylan J. Richmond is a materials scientist and advanced packaging engineer based in Ithaca, NY. He holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from SUNY Binghamton and has experience in thin-film processes, additive manufacturing of microelectronics, and reliability testing. Dylan's work spans laboratory development, device fabrication, and materials characterization with an emphasis on practical solutions that enable new packaging technologies.

Currently an Advanced Packaging Engineer at Lux Semiconductors (since 06/2023), Dylan designs, fabricates, and tests redistribution layers and advanced substrates using dual damascene processes and back-end-of-line techniques. He has hands-on expertise in plasma etching, sputtering, CVD, electroplating, femtosecond laser ablation, and DOE-driven process optimization. His research and development activities have supported SBIR-funded projects and led to multiple peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations.

Dylan manages lab operations over a 6000 sq. ft. facility, develops manufacturing protocols for glass-to-metal bonding, and collaborates with industry partners to translate industry and academic research into manufacturable solutions. He is a trained user of a large share of the fab and test equipment at Cornell CNF and Binghamton CAMM. He is available for consulting and collaborative projects in printed electronics, advanced packaging, and materials reliability testing.

Dylan's early career involved brief undergraduate researh in computation astrophysics at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research. His interests shifted to materials physics and renewables. The following year he engaged in a NSF funded REU at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln under the advisement of Dr. Peter Dowben. During this summer he synthesized hybrid-halide quantum dot perovskites and inkjet printed thin films onto glass substrates to characterize their optoelectronic properties.

Following that summer, Dylan entered his final year of undergraduate studies at SUNY Oswego, where he was awarded the SUNY Chancellor's award for student excellence. This is considered SUNY's most prestigious award given to a student.

Dylan continued his education at SUNY Binghamton, where he joined Dr. Mark Poliks' research group which speciallized in printed electronics for electronics packaging. During his time at Binghamton, Dylan worked as an intern under a Process Engineer at Universal Instruments Corp, where he was immersed in the world of printed circuit board assembly. The Advanced Process Lab group at UIC conducts collaborative industry-inspired research on real world manufacturing problems that plague OEMs, OSATs, and other members of the microelectronics supply chain. He studied the reliability of thermal interface materials under cyclic thermal fatigue, as well as characterizing relationships between thermal and electrical resistivity in such materials. His collaborative efforts were published in IEEE Transactions on Components Packaging and Manufacturing Technology and won an IEEE EPS best paper award in 2023

At the CAMM, Dylan engaged in four simultaneous industry collaborations that spanned high power, RF, and 3D additive electronics. His specialty was emploping aerosol jet printing to make thin film silver wirebonds, interconnects, and antennas on 3D conformal surfaces. Another aspect of his research that took place outside of industry motivations included characterizing the mechanical shear strength of bonds made to such printed films using isotropic conductive adhesives.

Some notable achievements of Dylan's work include:

Packaged SiC MOSFETS with low inductance printed wirebonds into a half-bridge inverter device that exhibited discharge-free operation up to 1.7kV and 50,000 cycles at 50A without failure
Demonstrated and validated the first iteration of Multi Jet Fusion 3D printed electronics for fully additive smart devices
Fabricated double sided Vivaldi & dual band Patch mmWave antennas on flexible Corning Willow Glass (100µm) and Ribbon Ceramic (40µm) with through-substrate-vias.
Executed a 100+ step multi-layer Cu/SiO2 dual damascene interposer flow on molybdenum wafers in the Cornell NanoScale Facility

Skills & Expertise

Advanced packaging: redistribution layers, dual damascene, substrate bonding
Thin-film processes: sputtering, CVD, plasma etching, electroplating
Additive manufacturing & printed electronics: aerosol jet, inkjet, direct ink writing
Materials characterization: DOE design, laser ablation, electrical/thermal testing
Assembly techniques: fine-pitch die bonding, ACF, conductive adhesives, soldering
Fabrication on glass & ceramic wafers; cleanroom processes
Lab & project management; grant-funded R&D (SBIR support)
Technical communication: publications, presentations, industry reports
Tools & software: Python, AutoCAD, Rhino3D, Klayout, Unix/Mac/Windows

Experience

Advanced Packaging Engineer — Lux Semiconductors, Ithaca, NY 06/2023–present

Designed, fabricated, and tested redistribution layers for advanced packaging on metal wafers using a dual damascene process.
Specialized in back-end-of-line semiconductor fabrication techniques: plasma etching, sputtering, CVD, and electroplating.
Delivered devices, experimental results, and reports that supported continued company funding through SBIR grants.
Managed a 6000 ft² lab and developed IP to improve glass-to-metal bonding in advanced substrates.
Characterized femtosecond IR laser ablation of molybdenum by designing, running, and analyzing design-of-experiments (DOEs).

Graduate Research Assistant — Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing (CAMM), Binghamton, NY 02/2020–06/2023

Designed, fabricated, and tested flexible hybrid electronic devices using additive manufacturing techniques.
Assembled electronic components onto flexible platforms using conductive adhesives, solders, and sintered materials.
Performed metal depositions, photolithography, and etching on thin glass and ceramic wafers.

Graduate Research Assistant — Universal Instruments Corp., Conklin, NY 03/2020–03/2022

Fabricated wire bonds using anisotropically conductive film (ACF) with a Finetech Die Bonder.
Investigated thermal and electrical resistivity relationships in thermal interface materials during thermal fatigue testing.
Presented industry research to consortium member companies.

Undergraduate Researcher — University of Nebraska–Lincoln 06/2018–08/2018

Synthesized quantum-dot halide-based perovskites with photovoltaic properties and printed thin films to demonstrate scalability.
Investigated alloying effects in mixed-halide perovskites to enhance photovoltaic performance.

Contact

Location: Ithaca, NY 14850, USA

Phone: (607) 233-0602

Email: dylan123210@gmail.com