Raj Gupta profile photo 1 on Tal

Raj Gupta

Hardware & sensors generalist

Mountain View

23+ years of work experience

FUJIFILM Dimatix, Inc.
Apr 20242 yrs 4 mosPresent

Santa Clara, CA

I lead metrology efforts around the microfabrication of silicon-based inkjet printheads. The role has an opportunistic-investigate bent, where sometimes I find myself pushing the bounds of conventional optics, electronics, acoustics, simulation tools and machine learning, to fulfill our needs in process monitoring for fabrication, assembly, and manufacturing.
Volant Technologies
Jun 200620 yrs 2 mosPresent

San Francisco Bay Area

Recently completed a multi-year project to realize a dual-wavelength laser scattering optical chamber to measure sub-micron particles. Designed, built, and tested for cyclic testing under highly condensing environments, the system extracted particle size and density in real-time from inverse Mie scattering calculations. The code was compiled from FORTRAN and sped up original calculations based in C++ / Python by 4000x. More importantly, the accuracy of the particle size and volume was shown to be within 2% of NIST traceable standards. The demonstration enabled a reliable, precise, routine, and automated alternative to the manual approach of mini-cascade impactor testing – an industry gold standard used by the FDA for qualifying powered aerosol drugs delivered to the lungs. Clients have included Lockheed-Martin, Intel Capital, Goldman Sachs, SVTC, Bridgewave, MEMSIC, Merit Medical, AccuCrete, UniPixel Displays, Lightconnect, Guided Interventions, and JUUL Labs. My general experience spans from front-end design and prototyping to back-end packaging, test, and trim, for sensors and sensors testing. It has included PPM failure detection and diagnostics for accelerometers, environmental test systems for pressure sensors, thin-film material stress measurements, finite-element analysis, and the design, development and miniaturization of silicon-based MEMS transducers and photonics.
Microfabrica Inc. (acquired by Technoprobe SpA)
Dec 202011 mosOct 2021

California, United States

Member of Microfabrica's executive team, reporting to its CEO. Led business development activities for Microfabrica's proprietary mesoscale additive manufacturing of metals and polymers. Applications included advanced 3D packaging, such as interposers, chiplets, and space transformers. Needs also mined in mixed signals and sensors, edge AI, 5G & 6G millimeter-wave, medical devices, opto-mechanics, microfluidics, micro-connectors, and high-power electromechanical relays. Microfabrica's core foundry capabilities included: • Electrodeposited solid metals comprising valloy, copper, palladium, gold, silver, and rhodium. • Embedded dielectrics for isolation of electrical interconnects and RF shielding. • Micron-scale lithography over meso-scale distances for microassembly, integration & alignment. • Specular surfaces for mirrors, optics, lasers, and low-loss mm-wave RF waveguides.
eLutions Integrated Systems, Inc.
Oct 20108 yrs 3 mosDec 2018

San Francisco Bay Area

Hands-on technical leader and business champion of a startup developing noninvasive glucose monitoring with near-infrared (NIR) Raman laser optical spectroscopy. Our multi-disciplinary team included electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, a physicist, a biostatistician, a physical chemist, PCB design engineers and programmers. With funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), eLutions developed laser confocal Raman backscattering solutions for minimally-invasive, contact-less, and continuous monitoring of biological processes, both ex vivo and in vitro. Its efforts integrated the use of traditional linear machine learning techniques as well as neural networks (nonlinear) for classification and quantification of target chemistries, analytes, and molecules. Broad applications included noninvasive glucose tracking for diabetes, and continuous real-time charting of product and reactants in bioreactors (i.e. PAT, process analytical technologies) and fermentation processes.
Measurement Specialties, Inc, now TE Connectivity
May 20033 yrs 2 mosJun 2006

San Francisco Bay Area

Responsible for: • New sensor development activities • Technology transfers of foundry and manufacturing capabilities to enable a foundry-less model • Application engineering support for some of our more challenging customers. Measurement Specialties maintained and marketed proprietary piezoresistive and piezoelectric pressure sensors, accelerometers, strain gauges, and microphones for industrial and medical applications. It also manufactured silicon-nitride cantilevers for AFM applications.

Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

M.S. & Ph.D., Electrical Engineering

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

19916 yrs1997
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

BS, Electrical and Electronics Engineering

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

19873 yrs1990

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Headline

Hardware & sensors generalist

About

My background is in semiconductors, silicon sensors, electromagnetics (RF), quasi-optical & laser spectroscopy systems, and MEMS. My specialty is in designing sensors systems for uses in metrology -- specifically, in-situ standards-based tools and electronics for mechanical and material property characterization, sub-micron particle sizing, counting, and sorting, and chemical composition analysis of mixed media. I am a enthusiastic proponent of understanding the fundamentals, and I have used FEM, neural networks, and related linear and non-linear numerical methods to augment my learning and the processes of discovery. I have been fortunate to have raised a few million dollars as a sole founder, worked alongside multiple co-founders and inside NASDAQ-traded companies, and exited (modestly) from a successful startup. I'm passionate about effecting the big picture. I enjoy realizing emerging technologies for practical and positive long-term goals, and occasionally sit on scientific review and advisory boards exploring fun and challenging technologies in the process. Skills / Tags: • Management: Startup CEO, CTO, technical director & strategy • Domain expertise: MEMS sensors & actuators, medical devices, laser optics • Machine Learning: PCA/PLS | keras | tensorflow • Programming & data: python | R Language • CAD: AutoCAD | SolidWorks | Comsol • FEM / FEA: ABAQUS | CoventorWare | Zemax • System level analysis: MATLAB | LTspice | Mathematica • OS: Linux | micropython | embedded systems • Biology: Assays, fluorescence, confocal microscopy & imaging, bioreactors • Spectroscopy: Tissue optics, hyperspectral imaging, shot-noise limited detection Email: gupta-at-terahz.org

Location

Mountain View

Work experience

Principal Engineer at FUJIFILM Dimatix, Inc., Apr 2024 - Present · 2 yrs 4 mos, Santa Clara, CA, I lead metrology efforts around the microfabrication of silicon-based inkjet printheads. The role has an opportunistic-investigate bent, where sometimes I find myself pushing the bounds of conventional optics, electronics, acoustics, simulation tools and machine learning, to fulfill our needs in process monitoring for fabrication, assembly, and manufacturing.

Consultant at Volant Technologies, Jun 2006 - Present · 20 yrs 2 mos, San Francisco Bay Area, Recently completed a multi-year project to realize a dual-wavelength laser scattering optical chamber to measure sub-micron particles. Designed, built, and tested for cyclic testing under highly condensing environments, the system extracted particle size and density in real-time from inverse Mie scattering calculations. The code was compiled from FORTRAN and sped up original calculations based in C++ / Python by 4000x. More importantly, the accuracy of the particle size and volume was shown to be within 2% of NIST traceable standards. The demonstration enabled a reliable, precise, routine, and automated alternative to the manual approach of mini-cascade impactor testing – an industry gold standard used by the FDA for qualifying powered aerosol drugs delivered to the lungs. Clients have included Lockheed-Martin, Intel Capital, Goldman Sachs, SVTC, Bridgewave, MEMSIC, Merit Medical, AccuCrete, UniPixel Displays, Lightconnect, Guided Interventions, and JUUL Labs. My general experience spans from front-end design and prototyping to back-end packaging, test, and trim, for sensors and sensors testing. It has included PPM failure detection and diagnostics for accelerometers, environmental test systems for pressure sensors, thin-film material stress measurements, finite-element analysis, and the design, development and miniaturization of silicon-based MEMS transducers and photonics.

Director Of Business Development at Microfabrica Inc. (acquired by Technoprobe SpA), Dec 2020 - Oct 2021 · 11 mos, California, United States, Member of Microfabrica's executive team, reporting to its CEO. Led business development activities for Microfabrica's proprietary mesoscale additive manufacturing of metals and polymers. Applications included advanced 3D packaging, such as interposers, chiplets, and space transformers. Needs also mined in mixed signals and sensors, edge AI, 5G & 6G millimeter-wave, medical devices, opto-mechanics, microfluidics, micro-connectors, and high-power electromechanical relays. Microfabrica's core foundry capabilities included: • Electrodeposited solid metals comprising valloy, copper, palladium, gold, silver, and rhodium. • Embedded dielectrics for isolation of electrical interconnects and RF shielding. • Micron-scale lithography over meso-scale distances for microassembly, integration & alignment. • Specular surfaces for mirrors, optics, lasers, and low-loss mm-wave RF waveguides.

CEO at eLutions Integrated Systems, Inc., Oct 2010 - Dec 2018 · 8 yrs 3 mos, San Francisco Bay Area, Hands-on technical leader and business champion of a startup developing noninvasive glucose monitoring with near-infrared (NIR) Raman laser optical spectroscopy. Our multi-disciplinary team included electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, a physicist, a biostatistician, a physical chemist, PCB design engineers and programmers. With funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), eLutions developed laser confocal Raman backscattering solutions for minimally-invasive, contact-less, and continuous monitoring of biological processes, both ex vivo and in vitro. Its efforts integrated the use of traditional linear machine learning techniques as well as neural networks (nonlinear) for classification and quantification of target chemistries, analytes, and molecules. Broad applications included noninvasive glucose tracking for diabetes, and continuous real-time charting of product and reactants in bioreactors (i.e. PAT, process analytical technologies) and fermentation processes.

Engineering Development Manager at Measurement Specialties, Inc, now TE Connectivity, May 2003 - Jun 2006 · 3 yrs 2 mos, San Francisco Bay Area, Responsible for: • New sensor development activities • Technology transfers of foundry and manufacturing capabilities to enable a foundry-less model • Application engineering support for some of our more challenging customers. Measurement Specialties maintained and marketed proprietary piezoresistive and piezoelectric pressure sensors, accelerometers, strain gauges, and microphones for industrial and medical applications. It also manufactured silicon-nitride cantilevers for AFM applications.

Education

M.S. & Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

BS, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign