Applications Group
Andrea Donohue
Andrea Donohue received a B.S. degree in physics and psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in December of 2003. She began working for the J.A. Woollam Company in 2001 while an undergraduate student, and joined the applications team in 2006.
James Hilfiker
James Hilfiker graduated from the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of Nebraska in 1995, where he studied under John Woollam. His graduate research involved in-situ ellipsometry applied to both sputter-deposition and electrochemical reactions, and optical characterization of magneto-optic thin films. He joined the J.A. Woollam Company upon graduation, where his research has focused on new applications of ellipsometry, including characterization of anisotropic materials, liquid crystal films, thin film photovoltaics, and Mueller matrix optical characterization. He has authored over 50 technical articles involving ellipsometry, including Encyclopedia articles and four book chapters on topics as varied as Vacuum Ultraviolet Ellipsometry, In-Situ Spectroscopic, and Dielectric Function Modeling. In 2015, James co-authored a book titled “Spectroscopic Ellipsometry: Practical Application to Thin Film Characterization.”
Dr. Nina Hong
Nina received her Ph.D. in physics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She holds Bachelor and Master degrees in physics from Hanyang University in South Korea. Her research focused on room-temperature solid-state neutron detectors using boron-rich carbon thin films. She has extensive experience in UHV thin film deposition including Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition and Physical Vapor Deposition. Her graduate research also involved material characterization using AES, XPS, XRD, XRR, IR/Raman Spectroscopy, AFM/MFM, and IV/CV measurements. Nina joined the applications team in July 2012.
Andrew Martin
Andrew received a Master’s degree in electrical engineering at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln. As a graduate student, he focused the degradation of anti-reflective coatings in a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) environment. Andrew began working part-time for the J.A. Woollam Company in 2004 while working on his undergraduate degree in computer engineering. He joined the applications team in 2009.
Greg Pribil
Greg holds a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His graduate research includes development of a hollow cathode reactive sputtering UHV system with magnetic field confinement. His research focuses on the deposition of a-Si:H, a-Ge:H and a-SiGe:H thin films for use in solar cells. He has been an applications engineer at the J.A. Woollam Company since January 2002 and works with the in situ spectroscopic ellipsometry group.
Neha Singh
Neha received a Master’s degree in electrical engineering at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln. As a graduate student, she focused on femtosecond laser ablation of metal surfaces. She joined the J.A. Woollam Company applications team in 2005, after completing an internship in the analytical services laboratory
Dr. Jianing Sun
Jianing received her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. She holds Master and Bachelor degrees in Chemical Engineering from Tsinghua University in China. Her Ph.D. research involved characterizing low-dielectric constant thin films using Positronium Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy (PALS). She worked as a process engineer on back-end processes and characterizations in the semiconductor industry and lecturer at University of Nebraska before joining J.A. Woollam Company in 2008 as an Applications Engineer.
Ron Synowicki
Ron holds a B.S. degree in physics and a Master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His master’s research involved laboratory simulation of materials degradation in Low Earth Orbit. He has worked in the analytical services laboratory at J.A. Woollam Company since 1993, specializing in customer applications development and service measurements using spectroscopic ellipsometry.
Dr. Tom Tiwald
Tom Tiwald received his Ph.D. in engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Ph.D. research focused on infrared ellipsometry to study free carrier and phonon absorptions in semiconductors. Also studied the infrared properties of anodic SiO2, thin films and plasma-treated polycarbonates.
Prior to that, he worked with SIMS, AES, and other surface spectroscopies in the semiconductor industry.
Tom joined the J.A. Woollam Company in 1999 in the Applications group. Since then, he has helped customers utilize ellipsometry for a wide range of applications, including infrared optical materials, optical properties vs. temperature measurements, as well as liquid cell, in situ and web coating process monitoring and control. He has also trained new customers on how to use their instruments and perform data analysis.
Over years Tom has helped develop and present more than 60 Data Analysis short courses using WVASE and CompleteEASE software, and in recent years he has developed and presented several internet-based short courses devoted to the analysis of VASE, CompleteEASE and IR-VASE ellipsometric data.
Jeremy VanDerslice
Jeremy received his Master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Nebraska. He is working towards his Ph.D. in engineering where he is studying pulsed-laser deposited films using spectroscopic ellipsometry and is currently building a chamber for in-situ ellipsometric characterization of PLD-grown films. Jeremy joined the J.A. Woollam Company as an applications engineer in 2010.
