Ph.D. Electrical Engineer in electron beams, improving product reliability, and improving manufacturing yield
Greater Boston Area
- Current
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- Technical Staff at MIT Lincoln Laboratory
- Past
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- Principal Process Engineer at Advanced Electron Beams, Inc.
- Consulting Systems Engineer at Absole Consulting (Self-employed)
- Consulting Systems Engineer at E-BEAM Services, Inc.
- Reliability Engineer at NEXX Systems, Inc.
- Expert witness at Graydon, Head & Ritchey, LLP
- Systems Design Engineer at KLA-Tencor
- Senior Reseach Scientist / Government contractor at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
- Engineer, Scientist, and Programmer at Electron Solutions, Inc.
- Senior Research Scientist at Science Research Laboratory
- Accelerator Engineer at Nicolet Electron Services
- Accelerator Engineer at Sterigenics
- Graduate Student at Naval Research Laboratory
- Electrical Engineer at Advanced Technology & Research Corp.
- Electrical Engineer at Naval Surface Warfare Center
- Summer student at IBM
- Education
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- University of Maryland College Park
- University of Maryland College Park
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Bayside High School
- Recommended
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3 people have recommended Daniel - Connections
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connections
- Industry
- Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing
- Websites
Daniel Weidman’s Summary
Ph.D. Electrical Engineer with more than 20 years of experience in electron beams, large equipment, reliability engineering, and project management of cross-functional teams.
Experienced with mid- and late- stage startups, mid-size companies, and large organizations.
Seeking to continue to use my analytical skills to bring cost savings through improving reliability of a product or improving yield of a manufacturing process in an environmentally focused company.
Daniel Weidman’s Specialties:
Improving equipment or product reliability
Quantifying reliability
Improving manufacturing process yield
Expert judicial testimony
Cross-functional experience in research, development, manufacturing, and customer interactions
Physical sciences, engineering, medical applications, and environmental applications
Authored or co-authored more than 20 journal articles and published technical reports and more than 60 conference presentations
Daniel Weidman’s Experience
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Technical Staff
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
(Educational Institution; Defense & Space industry)
July 2009 — Present (5 months)
Pro-active reliability engineering improvements to the Laboratory's most complex space and missile defense projects. Supporting all aspects of mission assurance, including safety, reliability, systems engineering, quality, and project management, throughout the life cycle of each project.
Specifically, applying systems engineering and reliability engineering techniques and analyses, such as hazard assessment, fault tree development (FTA), failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA or FMECA), requirement traceability and verification, and audits.
Ensuring that critical quality and engineering processes are established throughout the Laboratory, and are integrated with existing Laboratory processes.
This position is part of the Safety and Mission Assurance Office, which reports to the Laboratory Director. I am assigned to a couple of projects at a time, as needed, in various divisions of the Laboratory.
One project to which I will be assigned is managed jointly by the Electro-optical Materials and Devices Group, which is in the Solid State Division, and by the Control Systems Engineering Group, which is in the Engineering Division. I will be working with spacecraft, electronic systems, and semiconductor fabrication processes, including prototype testing of sensitive, low-noise, fast-response, near-infrared photodiode arrays for detection of lasers for long-distance, low-power, secure communication. -
Principal Process Engineer
Advanced Electron Beams, Inc.
(Privately Held; Renewables & Environment industry)
March 2007 — June 2009 (2 years 4 months)
Implemented a procedure to eliminate a failure mode that brought manufacturing yield to zero, thereby increasing manufacturing yield by about 10% overall, which is equivalent to about $200,000/year.
Led a team in a Failure Modes and Effects Analysis of our power supply during its development, identifying the most critical issues before deployment to customers, including issues not revealed by beta testing.
Increased acceptable output uniformity for the main product from 10% to 100% by adjusting equipment and software used in the manufacturing process and driving changes to the product design.
Managed and completed a MS Access database to track manufacturing information, replacing countless Excel files, enabling querying of data in < 1/4 the time, and allowing the weekly generation of plots showing product yield, symptoms, failure modes, and root causes. The user-friendly interface allows all personnel involved in various stages of the manufacturing process to enter data. -
Consulting Systems Engineer
Absole Consulting (Self-employed)
(Self-Employed; Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing industry)
July 2002 — August 2007 (5 years 2 months)
• Consulting for a 24 hour/day 50 kW electron-beam facility, ongoing, as needed
• Testified as an expert witness in a federal case. -
Consulting Systems Engineer
E-BEAM Services, Inc.
(Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing industry)
July 2002 — August 2007 (5 years 2 months)
• Consulting for a 24 hour/day 50 kW electron-beam facility: wrote Request For Quotation and contacted vendors for a large upgrade to the high-voltage modulator system. Obtained quotations from 900k to 1.2 million US dollars.
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Reliability Engineer
NEXX Systems, Inc.
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Semiconductors industry)
July 2002 — March 2007 (4 years 9 months)
Led projects to improve the reliability of the Nimbus and Stratus metal deposition machines:
• Led project that reduced cost of machine by $22,000 & reduced cost of ownership by $29,000/year.
• Increased availability from 85% to more than 90% on the Nimbus product
• Found and implemented a solution costing only $30 in parts and less than 1 hour in labor per motor, to eliminate reliability issue with motor encoders
• Failure Modes and Effects Analysis on Stratus subsystems, successfully identifying areas of potential failure
• Identify root causes of failures and determine action required to prevent recurrence
• Support the service team: prepare technical bulletins and work instructions
• Support the sales team: prepare slides on projects and on reliability data
• Developed allocation models of both machines to determine appropriate reliability testing of subsystems
• Led manufacturing efforts to ship refurbished Nimbus machines—on schedule. -
Expert witness
Graydon, Head & Ritchey, LLP
(Law Practice industry)
June 2002 — July 2003 (1 year 2 months)
• Testified as an expert witness in a federal case, concerning a 24 hour/day, 50 kW electron-beam linear accelerator system and the efficacy of its maintenance and the effect of the operating environment
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Systems Design Engineer
KLA-Tencor
(Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; KLAC; Semiconductors industry)
December 2000 — July 2002 (1 year 8 months)
• Characterized stage accuracy and image resolution of the scanning electron microscope (SEM)
• Increased manufacturing yield of electron-beam lenses from 85% to almost 100%.
• Wrote invention disclosure for capacitive sensor for measuring wafer height to 1 micron.
• Improved the user interface in various windows of the defect-review tool software.
• Represented division on a multi-country survey of customers to investigate gap between market needs and present products. -
Senior Reseach Scientist / Government contractor
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
(Government Agency; Aviation & Aerospace industry)
November 1999 — December 2000 (1 year 2 months)
• Integrated a 200 keV, 800 microAmp-dc electron-beam (EB) system, including my control software, hardware, and interlocks, for curing carbon-fiber composites
• Supervised crating and shipping of equipment.
• Managed a 6-person team for the construction of enclosure for x-ray shielding and high-voltage safety
• Conducted experiments by programming the Automated Tape Placement Machine. -
Engineer, Scientist, and Programmer
Electron Solutions, Inc.
(Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing industry)
1999 — 2000 (1 year )
• Built an EB system ahead of schedule, including wiring the custom electronics.
• In Microsoft Visual Basic, wrote the graphical user interface to call the appropriate hardware-control functions (in dll files), thereby allowing operation by the customer.
• In MS Visual Basic, wrote the algorithms for conditioning the electron gun so that the voltage and current were controlled based on measurements of vacuum, voltage, and current, thereby saving about a day of labor every couple of months.
• Installed at at the Boeing Radiation Effects Laboratory in Seattle, WA ahead of schedule. -
Senior Research Scientist
Science Research Laboratory
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Research industry)
August 1997 — December 2000 (3 years 5 months)
Led and participated in various research and development projects.
• Integrated a 200 keV, 800 microAmp-dc electron-beam (EB) system, including my control software, hardware, and interlocks, and installed system on schedule at NASA MSFC, for curing composites.
• Built an EB system ahead of schedule and installed at Boeing (Electron Solutions, Inc.).
• Invented a technique for inactivating bacteria in human blood.
• Obtained $100,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health for studying technique for inactivating bacteria, Small Business Innovative Research program, 2001
• Completed $746,000 DARPA-funded study of electron-beam treatment of food (PI).
• Coordinated the work of 4 labs, integrated the results, and completed a $299,000 NSF-funded SBIR project as co-PI studying electron-beam treatment of Volatile-Organic-Compound-contaminated water. -
Accelerator Engineer
Nicolet Electron Services
(Public Company; 11-50 employees; Medical Devices industry)
July 1995 — July 1997 (2 years 1 month)
Responsible for maintaining and improving the two electron-beam accelerators and all associated equipment, including conveyors, pulsed microwave equipment, and pulsed high-voltage electrical systems. Investigated problems to prevent recurrences, and implemented solutions by assigning tasks to the Engineering staff
• Increased production capacity (throughput) by 21%, without increasing maintenance hours.
• Wrote database & user interface tracking maintenance performed weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.
• Coordinated and supervised a 4-person team during a 15-day equipment overhaul to increase production capacity of the electron-beam accelerator.
• Wrote more than 90 documents recording training, procedures, and methods, for ISO 9000, the FDA, and other auditors.
• Designed or selected, purchased, and installed more than $200,00 worth of equipment, including magnets, power supplies, water chiller, air compressor, and air conditioning. -
Accelerator Engineer
Sterigenics
(Privately Held; Medical Devices industry)
July 1995 — July 1997 (2 years 1 month)
Sterigenics announced the acquisition of Nicolet Electron Services in Dec 1997.
Maintained & improved both electron-beam accelerators and associated equipment, including conveyors, pulsed microwave equipment, and pulsed high-voltage electrical systems. Investigated problems to prevent recurrences, and implemented solutions by assigning tasks to the Engineering staff
• Increased production capacity (throughput) by 21%, without increasing maintenance hours.
• Wrote database & user interface tracking maintenance performed weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.
• Supervised a 4-person team during a 15-day equipment overhaul to increase production capacity of the electron-beam accelerator.
• Wrote more than 90 documents recording training, procedures, and methods, for ISO 9000, the FDA, and other auditors.
• Designed or selected, purchased, and installed more than $200,00 worth of equipment, including magnets, power supplies, water chiller, air compressor, and air conditioning. -
Graduate Student
Naval Research Laboratory
(Government Agency; Research industry)
June 1992 — June 1995 (3 years 1 month)
My work at NRL was the portion of my Ph.D. thesis involving the measurement of the long-range propagation in air of a high-power electron beam.
• Propagated an intense relativistic electron beam (IREB, 5 MeV, 2 GW) more than one meter
• Cut the time required by more than half to set up the optical diagnostics.
• Designed an installed a Cherenkov-light detector, which was viewed by a fast framing camera (Gated Optical Imager)
• Wrote the first TIFF image reader in Microsoft Windows, thereby eliminating the need to scan images on a PC, convert the image data to numbers on a Mac using NIH Image, and then analyze the numbers on a PC.
• Wrote algorithms to automatically calculate the beam radius using multiple metrics and the beam centroid position
• Wrote Windows-based software for automatically curve-fitting to streak-camera images
• Developed image analysis algorithms for calculating the electron-beam centroid motion and various measures of the radius from framing camera images. -
Electrical Engineer
Advanced Technology & Research Corp.
(Defense & Space industry)
August 1988 — July 1992 (4 years )
Performed research at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in White Oak, MD on two electron-beam machines:
• Designed and built a fast magnet coil, powered by a 7 GW power supply, and associated diagnostics [D. J. Weidman, M. J. Rhee, and R. F. Schneider, “Fast-rise, large-volume, 1.7-kG magnetic-field coil,” Review of Scientific Instruments, 64, pp. 3376–79 (1993)]
• Modeled the magnetic field and resulting electron trajectories on a computer for my new diagnostic [D. J. Weidman, M. J. Rhee, and R. F. Schneider, “Time-Resolving Electron Energy Spectrometer,” Review of Scientific Instruments 62, 548 (1991)].
• “Bulk Plasma Generation” U.S. Patent 5,051,659: built hardware to produce a large volume plasma -
Electrical Engineer
Naval Surface Warfare Center
(Government Agency; Defense & Space industry)
August 1988 — July 1992 (4 years )
Government contractor employed by Advanced Technology and Research Corp. A portion of this work became the portion of my Ph.D. thesis involving the generation of a radius-tailored electron beam for long-range propagation through air.
Performed research at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in White Oak, MD on two electron-beam machines:
• Designed and built a fast magnet coil, powered by a 7 GW power supply, and associated diagnostics [D. J. Weidman, M. J. Rhee, and R. F. Schneider, “Fast-rise, large-volume, 1.7-kG magnetic-field coil,” Review of Scientific Instruments, 64, pp. 3376–79 (1993)]
• Modeled the magnetic field and resulting electron trajectories on a computer for my new diagnostic [D. J. Weidman, M. J. Rhee, and R. F. Schneider, “Time-Resolving Electron Energy Spectrometer,” Review of Scientific Instruments 62, 548 (1991)].
• “Bulk Plasma Generation” U.S. Patent 5,051,659: built hardware to produce a large volume plasma -
Summer student
IBM
(Public Company; IBM; Information Technology and Services industry)
June 1984 — August 1984 (3 months)
This position was at IBM's Thomas J. Watson's Research Center of Yorktown Heights, New York (in Ossining), at their Eastview facility, in the Display Systems Division.
I assembled an ultra-high-vacuum electron-beam vapor deposition system that had been disassembled.
Daniel Weidman’s Education
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University of Maryland College Park
Ph.D. , Electrical Engineering , 1987 — 1995
Thesis: “Measurements of an Intense Relativistic Electron Beam: Expansion During Propagation in Air and Generation of a Radius-Tailored Beam." This research was conducted at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in White Oak, Maryland and at the Naval Research Laboratory, Plasma Physics Division, Washington, DC.
- Activities and Societies:
- Electron beams
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University of Maryland College Park
M.S. , Electrical Engineering , 1985 — 1987
Thesis: “A Time-Resolving Thomson spectrometer and the Time-Velocity Distribution of Ions from a Plasma Focus”
- Activities and Societies:
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Charged Particle Beam Laboratory,
Laboratory for Plasma and Fusion Energy Studies,
Institute for Plasma Research
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
S.B. , Physics , 1981 — 1985
Thesis: “Design and Construction of a Free-Electron Laser”
- Activities and Societies:
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Baker House,
The Tech student newspaper
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Bayside High School
Diploma , Physics, Calculus, Nuclear Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, etc. , 1978 — 1981
- Activities and Societies:
- Math Team ("The Bayside Radicals"),
senior yearbook,
Arista Honor Society
Additional Information
Daniel Weidman’s Websites:
Daniel Weidman’s Interests:
electron beams, project management, reliability engineering, MS Access database programming
Daniel Weidman’s Honors:
"Solar Electricity" project won first place in my school science fair, 1977
Daniel Weidman’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
