Request Expert

Expert is a multidiscipliarian managing development & commercialisation from start-ups to sales in electronic displays, lamps & electronic materials. He has spent nearly a decade developing hot, cold & sintered cathodes for gas discharge lamps including use in signage, automotive lamps, avionic LCD back lights & analytical instruments at Masonlite & Cathodeon. He worked also on field emission cathodes for CRTs & field emission displays/lamps leading an industrial consortium with Oxford University, & also on carbon nanotubes for clients. Cathode work included ruggedisation, low noise designs, production troubleshooting & patents.

In terms of commercialisation, he has over 20 years experience winning new business by developing new products & presenting them to customers. Thus, he brought Lite Array, Inc. into worldwide sales of thin film electroluminescent display modules, & also developed OLED displays there winning the Eastman Kodak license & contributing to the business plan that led to establising a pilot plant in China using a novel method for reducing cost. He has prepared & presented proposals winning government funds at Smiths Industries, & avionic display contracts at Ferranti interfacing customers such as British Aerospace & Embraer in deals worth $9m (using novel features such as universal fitting for cost reduction or active contrast filters). Several products were developed & improved at Cathodeon for lamps & laser applying new techniques such as advanced cathode designs & methods of sealing. At Lite Array & Ferranti he prepared sales brochures, product specifications, company brochure & press releases; also he managed the web site & participated in international exhibitions.

Regarding competitive intelligence, he has monitored competitors & their technologies whilst at Lite Array & BBV Digital including prices & performance. As an example he found new blue LEDs as an opportunity & threat for billboard video displays subsequently visiting suppliers in Taiwan & China securing LED modules as second generation products. He also compared OLEDs & thin film electroluminescent technologies for medical & industrial instrument markets. Another example was the analysis of the window of opportunity for a gas ion laser compared to products from existing players, & ROI possible before replacement by solid state lasers.

Product development of devices over 20 years included CRTs & flat panel matrix displays such as LCDs, EL, OLEDs & VFDs for industrial, automotive, avionic & medical instrumentation. Gas discharge devices were developed as lamps or signs for the signage market at Masonlite, & analytical instrumentation industry at Cathodeon. Rapid development was acheived using concurrent engineering management. Several years were spent in development of gas discharge lamps & lasers at Cathodeon & Masonlite. Improved & new products included a brighter UV deuterium lamp, quieter xeonon lamps, new mercury lamps, flat electrodeless lamp, aircraft LCD back light, & automotive brake lamps.

Work on electrodes at Masonlite was for for cold cathode fluorescent lamps, & at Cathodeon for specialised gas discharge lamps in analytical instrumentation. Electrodes were also studied for clients such as field emitting carbon nanotubes, & special materials for electroluminescent lamps & organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs); this included some work on flexible electrodes. He has worked with transparent conductive electrodes such as indium tin oxide for over 20 years, & studied possible uses of carbon nanotubes. Aluminised & other metal electrodes were prepared as thin films for displays.

One of his main flat panel technologies is electroluminescence. This includes preparation & testing of all types of inorganic electroluminiescent displays including AC, DC, thin films & powders at General Electric, Smiths Industries & Lite Array, Inc. Also, he has led teams on small molecule organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) at Lite Array (winning the Eastman Kodak license) & for client studies. His M.Sc. in Materials Science & Ph.D in Physics included effects of phosphor crystallinity & gas adsorption on EL display efficiency & life. Presentations & seminars on EL were given at conferences & universities in Europe & Japan. He commercialised thin film EL display modules selling into industrial & medical markets worldwide at Lite Array as CTO & VP of Marketing.

Expert has a widespread technical & marketing background in electronic display technology including liquid crystal displays (LCDs), vacuum fluorescent displays (VFDs), electroluminecent (EL) & organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). He invented an LCD spacing technique for prototypes used in automotive displays, characterised LCDs at Smiths Industries & BBV Digital including dyed guest host & polymer dispersed liquid crystals. He liaised with LCD suppliers in Japan, Europe & the US over 20 years. Similarly, he worked with VFD suppliers & conducted some in-house R&D resulting in a patent on low voltage phosphors. Work on field emission display technology at Masonite included leading an industrial consortium with Oxford University, & again at Informative View for clients interested in carbon nanotube cathodes & displays/lamps. Liaison activities were with pioneers in nanoparticles for use in displays including porous silicon. Also, he has prepared nanosize materials & phosphors. Other work has been in preparation & characterization of color & contrast enhancement filters for various display technologies. Recent work was on billboard video displays using LEDs & LCDs.

His work on electronic material includes coating phosphors, dielectrics, metals & organic films for thin & thick film electroluminescence & for OLEDs. Techniques employed were RF sputtering, evaporation, screen printing, roll to roll, spraying, settling & electrophoresis. Besides coating, actual materials synthesized included nano size II-VI & IV-VI semiconductors. Characterization methods were BET surface area, adsorption of monolayers, tap density & novel optical techniques (e.g. to assess the optimum coating weight for a CRT phosphor screen). Encapsulation materials studies have been on glass frit & epoxy sealants, resins & desiccants. Extensive work was done also on dielectric breakdown for inorganic dielectric thin films. Client work has included examining business plans & prospects for flexible electrodes, carbon nanotubes, FEDs, photovoltaic solar cells & self assembled monolayers. Some design studies also undertaken on use of flexible electrodes & carbon nanotubes with several inventions on fabrication & coating. He was an invited speaker for a seminar at UC Berkley on nanotechnology in 2005.

Extensive work was undertaken at Masonlite working with customers & production on mechanisms of failure in cold cathode fluorescent lamps used in LCD back lights, architectural lighting & signage. Also at Cathodeon he was working on hot cathodes in lamps used in analytical instrumentation. He worked with Oxford University to confirm the mechanism of electrode blackening. Other studies were of sputtering damage & degradation of phosphor coated tubing. Expert has prepared & characterised ZnS & CdSe as nanoparticle powder & thin film phosphors. He studied also effects of adsorbed gases regarding charge transfer on ZnS affecting efficiency & life, also effects of particle size & crystallinity (M.Sc & Ph.D)

Innovation work has included cost saving schemes to open up business for OLED back electrodes allowing pilot production, & for a universal fit CRT display system winning contracts of about $3m. Other innovations have been in an active contrast enhancement filter, synthesis & deposition of carbon nanotube field emitters, & ruggedised & novel lamp cathodes including patents. Other patents include improvements to phosphors such as those for low voltage field emission. There was liaison also in acquiring licenses such as for OLEDs from Eastman Kodak, & for laser annealing technology to make brighter thin film electroluminescent displays. He led a consortium of industry & Oxford University to explore field emission cathode lamps & displays initially for signage applications. Liaison took place also with pioneers in conductive polymers for light emitting thin films, nanosize phosphors & porous silicon.

He has specialized in both organic & inorganic luminescence of powder & thin film phosphors for over 20 years. This includes synthesis, coating & characterisation at $ multibillon companies such as General Electric & Smiths Industries, also medium size companies such as Lite Array, Inc., Masonlite & Cathodeon. End uses have been in flat panel displays, lamps & signs.

Specific experience has been developing screening methods for CRTs including settling & electrophorsis. This included a novel suggestion for a new optical method to assess the optimum coating thickness. Expert has experience in assessing markets for employers & clients including electroluminescence, special gas discharge lamps, self assembled monolayers, nanosize particles, flexible electrode, & carbon nanotubes. He gathers information from a large network of contacts, customers, membership of societies such as the SID, RSC, IoP, & Materials Research Society, & from searches on the web & patent offices. He has prepared nanosize particles, along with characterisation & coatings mainly for light emission.

New product designs were carried out & managed for lamp cathodes at Masonlite & Cathodeon, & for electronic displays at Smiths Industries, Ferranti & Lite Array, Inc. These often included novel processing methods to reduce costs, improve yields or improve performance e.g. brighter, greater efficiency, & longer life as in electroluminecence.

Product design covered both displays & lamps as devices, as well as modules with electronics conforming to UL & EMI/EMC requirements. He managed multidisciplinary engineering teams at Ferranti in avionics, Smiths Industries in automotive instruments & for ruggedized EL displays at Lite Array for medical & industrial instruments. Particular attention was given to rapid development through Simultaneous Engineering, Total Quality Management, Design Reviews & Quality Assurance to ISO 9000 (including provision of Operating Procedures & novel testing methods).

He has monitored Nanotechnology & liaised with pioneers in carbon nanotubes & nanosize semiconductors & phosphors. Synthesis & characterisation included nano size selenides & tellurides. Patentable ideas were developed on carbon nanotube synthesis, deposition & use in field emission cathode devices or displays. He was an invited speaker at a seminar on nanotechnology held at CA Berkeley, 2005.

Experience in thin film technology includes RF sputtering & thermal evaporation of II-VI semiconductors & phosphors, dielectrics, metals & organic films. M.Sc. studies also included techniques for thin film deposition & characterisation. Studies were made of annealing by laser & heat regarding grain growth & crystallinity.

Expert has also worked in R&D for thin film CIGS solar cells since 2009. This includes sputtering deposition & device characterization. He has filed several patents for CIGS, perovskite and tandem solar cells. He also liaised with universities in the US & Taiwan working in the subject..

Whilst in the UK, Expert evaluated organic and inorganic electroluminescent display technologies presenting findings to the Board of a US company active in LED light sources.Studies were completed in 2005 of opportunities and viability for self assembled monolayer technology.Recent studies were undertaken in 2004 & 2005 of flexible electrodes for electroluminescent lamps and signs, and for flexible LCDs using printing or roll to roll technology.Since 2005, he has been involved in the evaluation and project designs for carbon nanotube lamps and various displays.R and D was conducted including assessment of suppliers for LCDs and LEDs with optical evaluations for use in billboard displays.In 2014, Expert advised on the design of a rugged touch panel LCD for an off-road vehicle company.From 2009 to 2016 Expert also worked on thin film CIGS solar cells, made by sputtering.In 2013, Expert assisted in the design of an improved gas discharge fluorescent lamp.