Agenda

Andy Nold is a Quality Engineer and Commodity Engineer at Teradyne near Chicago, IL. He is the Factory ESD subject matter expert and performs the company’s internal ESD audits. He has worked for Teradyne since 2011. Prior to Teradyne, Andy worked for the FAA, a small aerospace company, and the US Navy. Andy graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a bachelor’s degree in Applied Math, Engineering and Physics and a master’s in Engineering Mechanics. Outside of work, Andy likes to spend time with his wife and kids.

John graduated from the University of Buffalo with a BS in Electrical Engineering and a master’s in electrical engineering from Syracuse University. John was hired by IBM, where he worked for 46 years. As part of his role, John was IBM's Subject Matter Expert in ESD control. This included developing and implementing ESD control processes at all the IBM manufacturing sites and assessing IBM’s suppliers for ESD control. The processes included wafer fab to large servers with all the processes required in between.
John has been a part of the ESD Association for over 30 years. He is currently chair of Working Group 20, which is responsible for ANSI/ESD S20.20, Development of an Electrostatic Discharge Control Program. John is also a member of various other standards working groups. He is also a founding member of the Technical Advisory Support Committee (TAS), which oversees all the standards of the ESD Association. John holds the position of Sr. Technical Director for EOS/ESD Association, Inc. John is the chair of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Technical Committee 101 on electrostatics. John is also the project leader for IEC 61340-5-1 – Electrostatic Discharge Control Program. Before becoming the chair, John was the chief delegate for the United States.
John’s accomplishments include several patents, Certified ESD Program Manager, Certified iNARTE ESD Engineer, Reliability Center of Japan – Chief ESD Coordinator, Outstanding Contribution Award (ESD Association), Outstanding Technical Achievement Award (IBM), 1906 Award (IEC), and many more.

Olivier Marichal graduated from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven with a degree in Electrical Engineering in 2003 and has since dedicated his career to the field of Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) protection design, currently serving as Chief Engineering at Sofics. His journey with the company began shortly after graduation as an ESD engineer, and over the years, Olivier has worked on many projects, covering a broad range of technologies from High Voltage BCD to the latest nanometer Finfet and GAAFet processes. His professional focus is on continuously adding value to customers through his work, delivering state-of-the-art ESD solutions for the ever evolving landscape of semiconductor applications.  Olivier has (co-)authored several papers on ESD and contributed as an inventor on many patents. In addition to his technical contributions, Olivier is dedicated to sharing his knowledge and insights. He has conducted several tutorials on on-chip ESD protection design for industry professionals around the world.

Doug Smith received a B.E.E.E. degree from Vanderbilt University in 1969 and an M.S.E.E. degree from the California Institute of Technology in 1970. In 1970, he joined AT&T Bell Laboratories as a Member of Technical Staff. He retired in 1996 as a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff. From February 1996 to April 2000 he was Manager of EMC Development and Test at Auspex Systems in Santa Clara, CA. Mr. Smith currently is an independent consultant specializing in high frequency measurements, circuit/system design and verification, switching power supply noise and specifications, EMC, and immunity to transient noise. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a former member of the IEEE EMC Society Board of Directors.
His technical interests include high frequency effects in electronic circuits, including topics such as Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC), Electrostatic Discharge (ESD), Electrical Fast Transients (EFT), and other forms of pulsed electromagnetic interference. He also has been involved with FCC Part 68 testing and design, telephone system analog and digital design, IC design, and computer simulation of circuits. He has been granted over 15 patents, several on measurement apparatus.
Mr. Smith holds the title of University of Oxford Tutor in the Department of Continuing Education at Oxford University in the UK. He has lectured at Oxford University, The University of California Santa Barbara, The University of California Berkeley, Vanderbilt University, AT&T Bell Labs, and internationally at many public and private seminars on high frequency measurements, circuit design, ESD, and EMC. He is author of the book High Frequency Measurements and Noise in Electronic Circuits. His very popular website, http://emcesd.com (www.dsmith.org), draws many thousands of visitors each month to see over 250 technical articles as well as other features.
He provides training and consulting services in general design, EMC, and transient immunity (such as ESD and EFT), and switching power supply noise. His specialty is solving difficult problems quickly, usually within a couple of days. His work has included digital and analog circuits in everything from large diesel powered machinery to space craft to IC chip level circuits. His large client base includes many well known large electronic and industrial companies as well as medium sized companies and start-up companies.

John graduated from the University of Buffalo with a BS in Electrical Engineering and a master’s in electrical engineering from Syracuse University. John was hired by IBM, where he worked for 46 years. As part of his role, John was IBM's Subject Matter Expert in ESD control. This included developing and implementing ESD control processes at all the IBM manufacturing sites and assessing IBM’s suppliers for ESD control. The processes included wafer fab to large servers with all the processes required in between.
John has been a part of the ESD Association for over 30 years. He is currently chair of Working Group 20, which is responsible for ANSI/ESD S20.20, Development of an Electrostatic Discharge Control Program. John is also a member of various other standards working groups. He is also a founding member of the Technical Advisory Support Committee (TAS), which oversees all the standards of the ESD Association. John holds the position of Sr. Technical Director for EOS/ESD Association, Inc. John is the chair of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Technical Committee 101 on electrostatics. John is also the project leader for IEC 61340-5-1 – Electrostatic Discharge Control Program. Before becoming the chair, John was the chief delegate for the United States.
John’s accomplishments include several patents, Certified ESD Program Manager, Certified iNARTE ESD Engineer, Reliability Center of Japan – Chief ESD Coordinator, Outstanding Contribution Award (ESD Association), Outstanding Technical Achievement Award (IBM), 1906 Award (IEC), and many more.

Jay Skolnik is a licensed professional electrical engineer and is the co-founder and lead engineer/ consultant of Skolnik Technical Training in Albuquerque, NM. With over thirty years of experience in the electronics industry, Jay has developed a multitude of products utilized in different industries, including military, defense, avionics, aerospace, commercial, industrial, medical, automotive, and sports entertainment. As an ESDA certified program manager, Jay teaches ESD mitigation and control for the electronics and energetics specialties. He performs ESD audits to ensure factories and laboratories are following safe ESD control guidelines and procedures. He is also certified by iNARTE and is a certified professional instructor of national instruments (NI). He received his electrical engineering degree from the University of Missouri-Rolla.

Andy Nold is a Quality Engineer and Commodity Engineer at Teradyne near Chicago, IL. He is the Factory ESD subject matter expert and performs the company’s internal ESD audits. He has worked for Teradyne since 2011. Prior to Teradyne, Andy worked for the FAA, a small aerospace company, and the US Navy. Andy graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a bachelor’s degree in Applied Math, Engineering and Physics and a master’s in Engineering Mechanics. Outside of work, Andy likes to spend time with his wife and kids.

David E. Swenson retired in 2003 after 35 years of service from 3M.  While at 3M he had responsibility for new packaging material development and application, training of 3M personnel worldwide and providing application assistance to users of static control products globally with particular emphasis on Asia Pacific and Japan.  Dave and his wife Geri established a new company, Affinity Static Control Consulting, L.L.C .in 2003. Dave has been a member of the ESD Association since 1984 and has served in many capacities including 1997 Symposium General Chair and president of the Association in 1998 and 1999 and again in 2008 and 2009.  He was re-elected to the Board of Directors for a 5th term from 2014 to 2016 and is currently appointed to the Board to assist with technical inquiries. Dave was presented with the highest award of the ESD Association, the “Outstanding Contributions Award” in 2002, the Standards Committee “Joel P. Weidendorf Memorial Award” in 2004, the Association “Edward G. Weggeland” Memorial Award in 2014 and the Symposium Committee’s, David Barber, Sr. Memorial award in 2018.  He is a member of the Standards Committee serving several Working Groups and the ANSI/ESD S20.20 Standard Task Team.   Dave also serves as Treasurer and Information Liaison of the Texas Chapter of the ESD Association; he is a member of the Electrostatic Society of America, IMAPS, the UK Institute of Physics and is a US Expert to IEC TC101, Electrostatics. 

Wim Vanhouteghem is a Senior ESD Design Engineer and the head of the measurement lab at Sofics. A 2007 graduate of KHBO - now part of the Catholic University of Leuven, Wim joined Sofics immediately after completing his studies. His work primarily focuses on ESD protection in semiconductor technologies, ranging from high voltage BCD to FinFETs.  Wim has plenty of experience in implementing ESD protection and conducting ESD measurements. He contributed to the SEED concept and has worked on system-level ESD measurements on bare dies. 

Jay Skolnik is a licensed professional electrical engineer and is the co-founder and lead engineer/ consultant of Skolnik Technical Training in Albuquerque, NM. With over thirty years of experience in the electronics industry, Jay has developed a multitude of products utilized in different industries, including military, defense, avionics, aerospace, commercial, industrial, medical, automotive, and sports entertainment. As an ESDA certified program manager, Jay teaches ESD mitigation and control for the electronics and energetics specialties. He performs ESD audits to ensure factories and laboratories are following safe ESD control guidelines and procedures. He is also certified by iNARTE and is a certified professional instructor of national instruments (NI). He received his electrical engineering degree from the University of Missouri-Rolla.

David E. Swenson retired in 2003 after 35 years of service from 3M.  While at 3M he had responsibility for new packaging material development and application, training of 3M personnel worldwide and providing application assistance to users of static control products globally with particular emphasis on Asia Pacific and Japan.  Dave and his wife Geri established a new company, Affinity Static Control Consulting, L.L.C .in 2003. Dave has been a member of the ESD Association since 1984 and has served in many capacities including 1997 Symposium General Chair and president of the Association in 1998 and 1999 and again in 2008 and 2009.  He was re-elected to the Board of Directors for a 5th term from 2014 to 2016 and is currently appointed to the Board to assist with technical inquiries. Dave was presented with the highest award of the ESD Association, the “Outstanding Contributions Award” in 2002, the Standards Committee “Joel P. Weidendorf Memorial Award” in 2004, the Association “Edward G. Weggeland” Memorial Award in 2014 and the Symposium Committee’s, David Barber, Sr. Memorial award in 2018.  He is a member of the Standards Committee serving several Working Groups and the ANSI/ESD S20.20 Standard Task Team.   Dave also serves as Treasurer and Information Liaison of the Texas Chapter of the ESD Association; he is a member of the Electrostatic Society of America, IMAPS, the UK Institute of Physics and is a US Expert to IEC TC101, Electrostatics. 

David E. Swenson retired in 2003 after 35 years of service from 3M.  While at 3M he had responsibility for new packaging material development and application, training of 3M personnel worldwide and providing application assistance to users of static control products globally with particular emphasis on Asia Pacific and Japan.  Dave and his wife Geri established a new company, Affinity Static Control Consulting, L.L.C .in 2003. Dave has been a member of the ESD Association since 1984 and has served in many capacities including 1997 Symposium General Chair and president of the Association in 1998 and 1999 and again in 2008 and 2009.  He was re-elected to the Board of Directors for a 5th term from 2014 to 2016 and is currently appointed to the Board to assist with technical inquiries. Dave was presented with the highest award of the ESD Association, the “Outstanding Contributions Award” in 2002, the Standards Committee “Joel P. Weidendorf Memorial Award” in 2004, the Association “Edward G. Weggeland” Memorial Award in 2014 and the Symposium Committee’s, David Barber, Sr. Memorial award in 2018.  He is a member of the Standards Committee serving several Working Groups and the ANSI/ESD S20.20 Standard Task Team.   Dave also serves as Treasurer and Information Liaison of the Texas Chapter of the ESD Association; he is a member of the Electrostatic Society of America, IMAPS, the UK Institute of Physics and is a US Expert to IEC TC101, Electrostatics. 

Efraim Aharoni received the M.Sc. and Ph.D degrees in Physics  in 1989 and 1994 from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. His research in the Technion was focused on High Temperature Superconducting devices. In 1993 he joined Tower Semiconductor. Efraim worked in Tower in a variety of fields, in both engineering and management, in development as well as production. Amongst his engineering roles: process, device, yield, director R&D CMOS, and director of reliability. In the past 15 years, he has led the ESD and Latch-Up activities in the company as a senior principal engineer. This involves the development of new ESD devices and protection concepts, creating libraries of ESD devices in PDK, development of a unique concept of ‘empirical ESD modeling (for simulation of circuits containing snap-back based devices), PERC, and customer support. He works closely with the Tower design center, device engineers, PDK group, customers, and production lines, in Tower Semiconductor sites worldwide. Efraim served in the technical committees of IEW and EOS/ESD symposium, is a co-chair of WG22, and a member in the Industry Council of ESD Standards. In addition, he serves as the head of the Electrical Engineering department in the Kinneret College on the sea of Galilee and lectures on a variety of courses.

Kathleen Muhonen is currently an ESD engineer at Qorvo in Greensboro, NC.  She is involved in ESD on-chip protection for RF and Millimeter wave applications.  She is heavily involved in system level testing that helps standardize IED testing of RF components and instrumentation for better ESD characterization of clamps and materials. Previously she was responsible for RF characterization and model support for SOI switches and Gallium Arsenide power amplifiers. She has also done extensive work on developing state of the art harmonic and breakdown characterization system for semiconductors and has improved de-embedding techniques of large-scale modeling structures.  Kathleen's previous experience includes assistant professor at Penn State Erie, linearization design for base stations at Hewlett Packard, and power amplifier design at Lockheed Martin and GE Aerospace. 
Kathleen is a member of the ESD Association and is on all device testing standards committees, including serving as past TLP and HMM workgroup chairs. She has also served on the Board of Directors and is now serving as the education committee chair.  Kathleen received her BSEE degree from Michigan Technological University in 91, a MSEE from Syracuse in 94 and a PH.D.EE from Penn State University in 99. 

Andy Nold is a Quality Engineer and Commodity Engineer at Teradyne near Chicago, IL. He is the Factory ESD subject matter expert and performs the company’s internal ESD audits. He has worked for Teradyne since 2011. Prior to Teradyne, Andy worked for the FAA, a small aerospace company, and the US Navy. Andy graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a bachelor’s degree in Applied Math, Engineering and Physics and a master’s in Engineering Mechanics. Outside of work, Andy likes to spend time with his wife and kids.

In 2005, Dr. Mirko Scholz received his Diplom-Engineer (FH) degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences in Zwickau, Germany. In 2013 Dr. Mirko Scholz received his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels (VUB), Belgium. From 2005 until 2017 he was working as an ESD researcher in different R&D programs at imec in Leuven/Belgium. From March 2017 until June 2019, he was a program manager in the imec academy and in imec’s process technology transfer activities. 
Since July 2019 he has been with Infineon Technologies in Neubiberg, Germany where he is a Principal Engineer ESD Development. His daily work focuses on component- and system-level ESD protection design for RF, security, and automotive product lines at Infineon.
Since 2007 he has been an active member of different working groups in the ESD Association (ESDA) standards committee, currently co-chairing WG 5.6 (Human Metal Model). He was the management chair of the 2018 International ESD Workshop (IEW) in Belgium. Since 2019 he has been a member of the steering committee of the EOS/ESD Symposium. In this function he was the TPC chair in 2023 and the Vice Chair in 2024. He is the General Chair of the 2025 ESD Symposium. 
For the 2017-2019 term and again for the 2022-2024 and 2025-2027 terms he has been an elected member of the ESDA Board of Directors. Since 2017 he is leading as a business unit manager the Advanced Topics committee of the ESDA.
He has authored/co-authored more than 100 publications, tutorials, and patents in the field of ESD protection design and testing. He is co-author of the 2014 Springer book “System-level ESD protection”. He is a regular reviewer for several IEEE journals and a current member of the IRPS sub-committee on ESD and Latchup.

Myung-Hee Na is currently the Vice President and Technology Systems General Manager in Intel, USA. Over 20 years, she has been known as the semiconductor technologist and held various executive positions in global semiconductor companies including US, Belgium and Korea. She has been very diverse and deep semiconductor experiences from device to designs including logic and memory technologies over 20 years.   Prior to joining Intel in April 2024, over the past three years she was Vice President of the Revolutionary Technology Center in SK Hynix, Korea. In this role she was responsible for multi-decade semiconductor research roadmaps and strategies for memory centric and emerging computing domains such as emerging memory, and beyond memory.
From 2019-2023, Myung-Hee also worked at imec in Belgium where she was Vice President, Technology Solutions and Enablement. In this role she was responsible for overall 10-year research strategies for CMOS pathfinding and emerging computing domains such as edge computing. After completing her Ph.D. in Physics, Dr. Na started her career at IBM in 2001, where she held various technical, managerial and executive roles until early 2019. During that time, she was promoted to Distinguished Engineer and Technical Executive. At IBM Research, she successfully led Research and Development for multiple generations of semiconductor technologies, including high-K metal gate, FinFET, and Nanosheet development. Moreover, she has co-authored numerous research papers and U.S. and international patents.

Chloe Troussier received her engineering degree in Embedded Systems and Electronics in 2018 from Institut Mines Telecom Atlantique in Brest, France, and her Ph.D degree in 2022 from the University of Grenoble Alpes, France. During her Ph.D. thesis, she studied the Charged device model phenomenon. Since 2022, she has been a member of the ESD team in Crolles, working on designing ESD protections. 

Ellen Merkel joined the Analysis & Test group at Fraunhofer EMFT in 2018 and has been supporting the team in researching topics related to electrostatic discharges. She received her Bachelor's (2018) and Master's degree (2021) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany. Since then, she has worked as a research associate at Fraunhofer EMFT, specializing in ESD test methods, ESD robustness and protection, and simulations. In 2022, she started to work on her PhD with a focus on ESD risks in Multi-Chip Modules (MCM) and Systems in Package (SiP). Ellen is an active member of the ESD Association and joined the steering committee of the International ESD Workshop 2023 in Tutzing, Germany.

Wei-Min Wu received the dual Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the KU Leuven, Belgium, and in electronic engineering from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), Taiwan in 2022. He is now with IMEC, Leuven, Belgium as an RF ESD researcher. His current research interests include ESD protections in Design Technology Co-Optimization (DTCO) with the Si/III-V RF devices and circuits, and in high-speed I/O technology.

Chloe Troussier received her engineering degree in Embedded Systems and Electronics in 2018 from Institut Mines Telecom Atlantique in Brest, France, and her Ph.D degree in 2022 from the University of Grenoble Alpes, France. During her Ph.D. thesis, she studied the Charged device model phenomenon. Since 2022, she has been a member of the ESD team in Crolles, working on designing ESD protections. 

Wei-Min Wu received the dual Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the KU Leuven, Belgium, and in electronic engineering from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), Taiwan in 2022. He is now with IMEC, Leuven, Belgium as an RF ESD researcher. His current research interests include ESD protections in Design Technology Co-Optimization (DTCO) with the Si/III-V RF devices and circuits, and in high-speed I/O technology.

Ellen Merkel joined the Analysis & Test group at Fraunhofer EMFT in 2018 and has been supporting the team in researching topics related to electrostatic discharges. She received her Bachelor's (2018) and Master's degree (2021) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany. Since then, she has worked as a research associate at Fraunhofer EMFT, specializing in ESD test methods, ESD robustness and protection, and simulations. In 2022, she started to work on her PhD with a focus on ESD risks in Multi-Chip Modules (MCM) and Systems in Package (SiP). Ellen is an active member of the ESD Association and joined the steering committee of the International ESD Workshop 2023 in Tutzing, Germany.

Harald Gossner (Senior Member, IEEE) received the Dipl.-Phys. degree from Ludwig-Maximilian's University, Munich, Germany, in 1990, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from University der Bundeswehr, Munich, Germany, in 1995. He is currently a Senior Principal Engineer with Intel, Neubiberg, Germany. Dr. Gossner is a Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Industry Council on ESD Target Levels.

Toni Viheriäkoski established electrostatics laboratory services for Nokia in 2001. He received the INARTE ESD engineer certification in 2004. Since 2008, he has been working on electrostatic and ESD risk analysis in the healthcare, medical, electronics, automotive, and process industries at Cascade Metrology Oy. Toni has written more than 30 publications. He has been the chair of the Finnish STAHA Association since 2006 and the chair of the Finnish Standardization Committee SK101 since 2016. He received the specialist qualification in business management in 2018 and the 1906 award from IEC in 2019. He is a member of several IEC and ESDA working groups.

Shinichi Yamaguchi has more than 37 years of experience in the static electricity industry, providing technical guidance on various static electricity measurements, countermeasures for static electricity problems, and proposals for the development of countermeasures and measuring instruments by ESD measuring instrument manufacturers and Ionizer manufacturers.
He has been involved in the ESD market in Japan for more than 33 years, and has conducted seminars and factory diagnoses at major semiconductor, electronic device, and LCD-related companies. He has also been active in the Asian market since 1998, and has conducted seminars and factory diagnoses for LCD, HDD, and semiconductor-related companies in the same way as in Japan.

Toni Viheriäkoski established electrostatics laboratory services for Nokia in 2001. He received the INARTE ESD engineer certification in 2004. Since 2008, he has been working on electrostatic and ESD risk analysis in the healthcare, medical, electronics, automotive, and process industries at Cascade Metrology Oy. Toni has written more than 30 publications. He has been the chair of the Finnish STAHA Association since 2006 and the chair of the Finnish Standardization Committee SK101 since 2016. He received the specialist qualification in business management in 2018 and the 1906 award from IEC in 2019. He is a member of several IEC and ESDA working groups.

Shinichi Yamaguchi has more than 37 years of experience in the static electricity industry, providing technical guidance on various static electricity measurements, countermeasures for static electricity problems, and proposals for the development of countermeasures and measuring instruments by ESD measuring instrument manufacturers and Ionizer manufacturers.
He has been involved in the ESD market in Japan for more than 33 years, and has conducted seminars and factory diagnoses at major semiconductor, electronic device, and LCD-related companies. He has also been active in the Asian market since 1998, and has conducted seminars and factory diagnoses for LCD, HDD, and semiconductor-related companies in the same way as in Japan.

Carl Newberg is the manager of the Applications Engineering Team at Simco-Ion Technology, an ITW Company. Simco-Ion develops ionization solutions for high-technology semiconductor, electronics, and life science manufacturing. He has a B.S. degree in Metallurgical Engineering, an M.S. Degree in Materials Science, and a professional engineer’s license (Met. Eng.). He was among the first to test and receive certification from the ESDA as a Certified ESD Program Manager. He held positions as the ESD Program Manager for Western Digital Corporation and has been actively involved in the corporate ESD and contamination control programs at Seagate Technology and IBM Corporation. Carl has been a member of the ESD Association since 1995, actively participating as a board member, on many other major committees, and as a tutorial instructor. He is currently the ESD Association working group chairman of WG3 (Ionization) and WG28 (Electrostatic Attraction). He is co-author of "Contamination and ESD Control in High Technology Manufacturing", a book published by John Wiley & Sons.

Toni Viheriäkoski established electrostatics laboratory services for Nokia in 2001. He received the INARTE ESD engineer certification in 2004. Since 2008, he has been working on electrostatic and ESD risk analysis in the healthcare, medical, electronics, automotive, and process industries at Cascade Metrology Oy. Toni has written more than 30 publications. He has been the chair of the Finnish STAHA Association since 2006 and the chair of the Finnish Standardization Committee SK101 since 2016. He received the specialist qualification in business management in 2018 and the 1906 award from IEC in 2019. He is a member of several IEC and ESDA working groups.

Toni Viheriäkoski established electrostatics laboratory services for Nokia in 2001. He received the INARTE ESD engineer certification in 2004. Since 2008, he has been working on electrostatic and ESD risk analysis in the healthcare, medical, electronics, automotive, and process industries at Cascade Metrology Oy. Toni has written more than 30 publications. He has been the chair of the Finnish STAHA Association since 2006 and the chair of the Finnish Standardization Committee SK101 since 2016. He received the specialist qualification in business management in 2018 and the 1906 award from IEC in 2019. He is a member of several IEC and ESDA working groups.

Leonardo Di Biccari graduated (summa cum laude) in electronic engineering at the University of Padova. He is a member of the Technical Staff at STMicroelectronics, where he is leading the group responsible for ESD protection development in BCD technologies. Since 2012, Leonardo has been representing STMicroelectronics in the main ESDA standardization committees, including HBM, CDM, and TLP, where he is currently acting as vice-chair. Since 2024, he has been serving in the ESDA Standard Committee. Leonardo authored several papers on ESD and EDA topics presented at ESREF, IRPS, and the EOS/ESD Symposium, where he regularly served in the Technical Program Committee. 

Carl Newberg is the manager of the Applications Engineering Team at Simco-Ion Technology, an ITW Company. Simco-Ion develops ionization solutions for high-technology semiconductor, electronics, and life science manufacturing. He has a B.S. degree in Metallurgical Engineering, an M.S. Degree in Materials Science, and a professional engineer’s license (Met. Eng.). He was among the first to test and receive certification from the ESDA as a Certified ESD Program Manager. He held positions as the ESD Program Manager for Western Digital Corporation and has been actively involved in the corporate ESD and contamination control programs at Seagate Technology and IBM Corporation. Carl has been a member of the ESD Association since 1995, actively participating as a board member, on many other major committees, and as a tutorial instructor. He is currently the ESD Association working group chairman of WG3 (Ionization) and WG28 (Electrostatic Attraction). He is co-author of "Contamination and ESD Control in High Technology Manufacturing", a book published by John Wiley & Sons.

After receiving his Ph.D. from the Eindhoven University of Technology with a thesis on compact device modelling, Theo Smedes worked at the Delft University of Technology on layout-to-circuit extraction. In 1995, he joined NXP Semiconductors (Philips Semiconductors at that time), working on tools for statistical design. Currently, he is an NXP Fellow for ESD and Latch-up. Theo is a member of all ESDA device testing working groups and chairs the TLP working group. He published several papers on ESD and received the 2007 Best Paper Award and the 2009, 2018, and 2022 Outstanding Paper Award of the EOS/ESD Symposium. Theo was the general chair of the EOS/ESD Symposium in 2013. He has been recognized with ESDA's David F. Barber Sr. Memorial Award (2017) and Outstanding Contribution Award (2022).

Leonardo Di Biccari graduated (summa cum laude) in electronic engineering at the University of Padova. He is a member of the Technical Staff at STMicroelectronics, where he is leading the group responsible for ESD protection development in BCD technologies. Since 2012, Leonardo has been representing STMicroelectronics in the main ESDA standardization committees, including HBM, CDM, and TLP, where he is currently acting as vice-chair. Since 2024, he has been serving in the ESDA Standard Committee. Leonardo authored several papers on ESD and EDA topics presented at ESREF, IRPS, and the EOS/ESD Symposium, where he regularly served in the Technical Program Committee. 

After receiving his Ph.D. from the Eindhoven University of Technology with a thesis on compact device modelling, Theo Smedes worked at the Delft University of Technology on layout-to-circuit extraction. In 1995, he joined NXP Semiconductors (Philips Semiconductors at that time), working on tools for statistical design. Currently, he is an NXP Fellow for ESD and Latch-up. Theo is a member of all ESDA device testing working groups and chairs the TLP working group. He published several papers on ESD and received the 2007 Best Paper Award and the 2009, 2018, and 2022 Outstanding Paper Award of the EOS/ESD Symposium. Theo was the general chair of the EOS/ESD Symposium in 2013. He has been recognized with ESDA's David F. Barber Sr. Memorial Award (2017) and Outstanding Contribution Award (2022).

In 2005, Dr. Mirko Scholz received his Diplom-Engineer (FH) degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences in Zwickau, Germany. In 2013 Dr. Mirko Scholz received his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels (VUB), Belgium. From 2005 until 2017 he was working as an ESD researcher in different R&D programs at imec in Leuven/Belgium. From March 2017 until June 2019, he was a program manager in the imec academy and in imec’s process technology transfer activities. 
Since July 2019 he has been with Infineon Technologies in Neubiberg, Germany where he is a Principal Engineer ESD Development. His daily work focuses on component- and system-level ESD protection design for RF, security, and automotive product lines at Infineon.
Since 2007 he has been an active member of different working groups in the ESD Association (ESDA) standards committee, currently co-chairing WG 5.6 (Human Metal Model). He was the management chair of the 2018 International ESD Workshop (IEW) in Belgium. Since 2019 he has been a member of the steering committee of the EOS/ESD Symposium. In this function he was the TPC chair in 2023 and the Vice Chair in 2024. He is the General Chair of the 2025 ESD Symposium. 
For the 2017-2019 term and again for the 2022-2024 and 2025-2027 terms he has been an elected member of the ESDA Board of Directors. Since 2017 he is leading as a business unit manager the Advanced Topics committee of the ESDA.
He has authored/co-authored more than 100 publications, tutorials, and patents in the field of ESD protection design and testing. He is co-author of the 2014 Springer book “System-level ESD protection”. He is a regular reviewer for several IEEE journals and a current member of the IRPS sub-committee on ESD and Latchup.

Matteo Meneghini received his PhD (University of Padova) working on the optimization of GaN-based LED and laser structures.
He is now a full professor at the Department of Information Engineering at the University of Padova. His main interests are the characterization, reliability, and modeling of compound semiconductor devices (LEDs, laser diodes, HEMTs) and optoelectronic components, including solar cells. He has published more than 400 journal and conference proceedings papers related to these activities.
During his career, he has cooperated and/or co-published with several semiconductor companies and research centers. He has been elected IEEE Fellow (Class of 2025). He and his colleagues have won several best paper awards at international conferences.

Thalis da Costa Guedes received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from "Universidade Federal de Campina Grande" and his M.Sc. degree in electronics systems from "Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble" (INPG) through the prestigious Eiffel double degree program in 2023. Currently, he is pursuing a Ph.D. in micro and nanoelectronics at "Université Grenoble Alpes" in partnership with STMicroelectronics. He is dedicated to researching and developing solutions for electrostatic discharge protection in radiofrequency circuits, with articles and patents in the field.

Chen-Yu Liang received the B.S. degree from the Department of Physics from National Tsing-Hua University (NTHU), Hsinchu, Taiwan, R.O.C., in 2015 and the M.S. degree from the Institute of Electronics, National Chiao-Tung University (NCTU), Hsinchu, Taiwan, R.O.C., in 2019. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree at the Institute of Electronics, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), Hsinchu, Taiwan. His current research interests include high-speed I/O circuits and ESD protection design for mixed-signal and RF ICs.

Michael Stockinger (PhD, 2000, Vienna University, Austria) is Technical Director at NXP's Advanced Chip Engineering division, Austin, Texas, focusing on ESD and LU. His design solutions have been implemented in Kinetis, i.MX, ColdFire, and MCX product lines. Michael received ESD Symposium Best Paper or Best Presentation awards in 2001, 2003, 2013, and 2020 and the Industry Pioneer Recognition Award in 2023. He has over 40 papers and 33 patents. He served on TPCs of the ESD Symposium and the IRPS and teaches tutorials and online courses. Michael is chair of the JESD78 workgroup and Si2's CMC ASM-ESD diode model workgroup.

Thalis da Costa Guedes received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from "Universidade Federal de Campina Grande" and his M.Sc. degree in electronics systems from "Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble" (INPG) through the prestigious Eiffel double degree program in 2023. Currently, he is pursuing a Ph.D. in micro and nanoelectronics at "Université Grenoble Alpes" in partnership with STMicroelectronics. He is dedicated to researching and developing solutions for electrostatic discharge protection in radiofrequency circuits, with articles and patents in the field.

Chen-Yu Liang received the B.S. degree from the Department of Physics from National Tsing-Hua University (NTHU), Hsinchu, Taiwan, R.O.C., in 2015 and the M.S. degree from the Institute of Electronics, National Chiao-Tung University (NCTU), Hsinchu, Taiwan, R.O.C., in 2019. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree at the Institute of Electronics, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), Hsinchu, Taiwan. His current research interests include high-speed I/O circuits and ESD protection design for mixed-signal and RF ICs.

Michael Stockinger (PhD, 2000, Vienna University, Austria) is Technical Director at NXP's Advanced Chip Engineering division, Austin, Texas, focusing on ESD and LU. His design solutions have been implemented in Kinetis, i.MX, ColdFire, and MCX product lines. Michael received ESD Symposium Best Paper or Best Presentation awards in 2001, 2003, 2013, and 2020 and the Industry Pioneer Recognition Award in 2023. He has over 40 papers and 33 patents. He served on TPCs of the ESD Symposium and the IRPS and teaches tutorials and online courses. Michael is chair of the JESD78 workgroup and Si2's CMC ASM-ESD diode model workgroup.

Steffen Holland received his diploma and PhD in Physics from the University of Hamburg in 2004. He joined Philips Semiconductors/NXP/Nexperia in the process development group for discrete bipolar devices in Hamburg, Germany in 2005. The main focus of his work quickly became TCAD process and device simulations for discrete ESD protection devices. He works now on discrete ESD protection devices. His current interests are system level ESD simulations. He currently serves in the Board of Directors at the ESD Association and is chair of the ESDA working group 26.

Benjamin J. Orr was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1989. He received a B.S. in both electrical and computer engineering in 2011 and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 2016 from the Missouri University of Science and Technology. During his doctoral work which he completed three co-ops at Intel Mobile Communications in Munich Germany modeling ESD-induced soft failures.
Upon graduation, Benjamin returned home to the pacific northwest, joining the Intel Corporation in Hillsboro, OR as a process reliability ESD engineer. His research interests include optimization of ESD protection devices, novel ESD protection devices, and statistical characterization of process ESD performance.

Scott Ruth joined AMD’s Circuit Technology group in 2019 as a staff engineer responsible for ESD protection design for advanced CMOS processes. Before joining AMD, he was with NXP Semiconductors working in various capacities in ESD, including design, qualification, and characterization. Scott has authored and co-authored papers at the EOS/ESD Symposium and delivered tutorials on latch-up for both the ESDA and IRPS. He has served on the technical program committee for the EOS/ESD Symposium, the IRPS, and the IEW. He has also contributed to ESDA WG18 and the JESD78 working groups. Scott received a B.S. degree in Physics from the University of California at Davis and an MSEE from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Barry has worked in the Semiconductor industry for over 25 years and in leadership roles for the past 15 years. Barry started working in Reliability Development at National Semiconductor, focusing on Analog and Power Technologies, originally on dielectric integrity and then on all device-level Safe Operating Areas. Since 2011, Barry has worked in leadership roles at Fairchild, Indie, TDK, Rockley, and now at Ventiva, where he is focused on bringing this exciting air-moving technology to market.

Martin Pilaski holds a diploma in Computer Engineering from Mannheim University. He joined Philips Semiconductors in 2005 and has since then worked in several product design and application marketing roles for NXP and Nexperia. Martin is currently responsible for worldwide product application support of Nexperia's Bipolar Discretes portfolio with a focus on ESD and EMC for mobile, portable, consumer, and computing applications.

Timothy J. Maloney graduated in physics and EE from MIT (SB 1971) and Cornell (MS 1973, PhD 1976). Following postdoctoral work at Cornell and semiconductor research at Varian Associates, Palo Alto, CA, he joined Intel Corp., Santa Clara, CA, in 1984, and has been concerned with IC ESD protection and testing, signal integrity, system ESD, and other topics. Dr. Maloney became a Senior Principal Engineer at Intel and retired in 2016.  He has 40 patents, is co-author of a book, "Basic ESD and I/O Design" (Wiley, 1998), and is a Fellow of the IEEE.  He has many publications at the EOS/ESD Symposium, IRPS, and other IEEE-connected entities.

Giacomo Drudi received the M.S. degree (cum laude) in Electrical Engineering from the University of Bologna, Italy, in 2024, with a thesis on numerical simulation of ESD protection devices, focusing on the effects of high-level injection and current filamentation in BCD technology. He is currently a Research Fellow in the Advanced Research Center on Electronic Systems (ARCES), University of Bologna, focusing on GaN HEMTs reliability numerical simulations.

Guido Quax received an MSc and Ph.D. in Applied Physics at the Eindhoven University of Technology in 2003 and 2008, respectively. His Ph.D. research focused on the electrical and optical properties of III-V semiconductor quantum dots. After graduation, he worked in the field of optical properties of soft matter at Philips Research. He joined the ESD team of NXP Semiconductors in 2012, focusing on high voltage and power applications. He has an interest in the experiments and modeling of parasitic bipolars and thyristors in Silicon.

Dr. Vladislav Vashchenko has been the Sr. Director, Power ESD Group at Analog Devices Corp since 2011. He is responsible for aspects of power analog ESD/Latchup IC co-design business process and technology development. Previously, he managed ESD technology development at National Semiconductor (2000-2011). He received an MS Engineer-Physicist (1987), a Ph.D. in Physics of Semiconductors from MIPT (1990), and a "Doctor of Science in Microelectronics" habilitation degree (1997). He is the author of 150 U.S. patents, over 120 papers, and co-author of three books in the ESD field.

Steffen Holland received his diploma and PhD in Physics from the University of Hamburg in 2004. He joined Philips Semiconductors/NXP/Nexperia in the process development group for discrete bipolar devices in Hamburg, Germany in 2005. The main focus of his work quickly became TCAD process and device simulations for discrete ESD protection devices. He works now on discrete ESD protection devices. His current interests are system level ESD simulations. He currently serves in the Board of Directors at the ESD Association and is chair of the ESDA working group 26.

Steffen Holland received his diploma and PhD in Physics from the University of Hamburg in 2004. He joined Philips Semiconductors/NXP/Nexperia in the process development group for discrete bipolar devices in Hamburg, Germany in 2005. The main focus of his work quickly became TCAD process and device simulations for discrete ESD protection devices. He works now on discrete ESD protection devices. His current interests are system level ESD simulations. He currently serves in the Board of Directors at the ESD Association and is chair of the ESDA working group 26.

Timothy J. Maloney graduated in physics and EE from MIT (SB 1971) and Cornell (MS 1973, PhD 1976). Following postdoctoral work at Cornell and semiconductor research at Varian Associates, Palo Alto, CA, he joined Intel Corp., Santa Clara, CA, in 1984, and has been concerned with IC ESD protection and testing, signal integrity, system ESD, and other topics. Dr. Maloney became a Senior Principal Engineer at Intel and retired in 2016.  He has 40 patents, is co-author of a book, "Basic ESD and I/O Design" (Wiley, 1998), and is a Fellow of the IEEE.  He has many publications at the EOS/ESD Symposium, IRPS, and other IEEE-connected entities.

Martin Pilaski holds a diploma in Computer Engineering from Mannheim University. He joined Philips Semiconductors in 2005 and has since then worked in several product design and application marketing roles for NXP and Nexperia. Martin is currently responsible for worldwide product application support of Nexperia's Bipolar Discretes portfolio with a focus on ESD and EMC for mobile, portable, consumer, and computing applications.

Guido Quax received an MSc and Ph.D. in Applied Physics at the Eindhoven University of Technology in 2003 and 2008, respectively. His Ph.D. research focused on the electrical and optical properties of III-V semiconductor quantum dots. After graduation, he worked in the field of optical properties of soft matter at Philips Research. He joined the ESD team of NXP Semiconductors in 2012, focusing on high voltage and power applications. He has an interest in the experiments and modeling of parasitic bipolars and thyristors in Silicon.