III-V Epi appoints director of epitaxy
Compound semiconductor industry expert Neil Gerrard to support customer technical requirements
III-V Epi has appointed Neil Gerrard, a well-respected III-V epitaxial engineer with over thirty years’ industrial experience, as its new director of epitaxy.
Gerrard’s new role will help capture the MBE and MOCVD, III-V epitaxial manufacturing, support and R&D requirements of III-V Epi’s customers. These range from universities, development departments and start-ups through to defence, smaller datacoms and telecoms companies.
Gerrard’s previous III-V, compound semiconductor manufacturing experience has included technology direction; new product development; and wafer FAB and epitaxy operations. His roles have ranged from technical marketing director at Aixtron UK Ltd (Thomas Swan); UK MD at LayTec UK; to engineering lead in start-ups, KUBOS and Optical Reference Systems. Gerrard helped set up and run the wafer fab at Nortel Networks; a multi-billion-dollar company. He also helped introduce the MOCVD facility at Sivers.
Gerrard first worked with fellow III-V Epi director, Richard Hogg, whilst director of operations and Business development for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Between them, they helped set up the National Centre for III-V Technologies at the University of Sheffield.
Gerrard has a PhD from the University of Manchester, Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST). He followed this with post-doctoral research at Bell Labs, where he first began honing his MOCVD skills.
