Dr. Brad Ferguson to Lead SkyWater’s Advanced Packaging Facility and Serve as Chief Government Affairs Officer to Drive Public-Private Partnerships
Leadership team expansion reinforces SkyWater’s support of domestic semiconductor technology and supply chain
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – March 9, 2021 – SkyWater Technology, the trusted technology realization partner, today announced the appointment of Dr. Steven Kosier as the company’s chief technology officer (CTO) and Dr. Brad Ferguson as chief government affairs officer and senior vice president and general manager of SkyWater’s advanced packaging facility in Florida. Dr. Kosier brings over 25 years of experience as a technologist and in various roles as a business, operations, engineering, and marketing leader. During the past two years, Dr. Ferguson served in the role of CTO, creating a strong foundation for this critical function. Moving forward, Dr. Kosier will drive SkyWater’s efforts in developing the company’s technology roadmaps, strategic alliances, and IP strategies.
Dr. Kosier joins SkyWater with extensive experience in power management IC and radiation-hardened technology, having served as vice president of R&D at Polar Semiconductor and adjoint professor of electrical engineering at Vanderbilt University. He also brings extensive business credentials, most recently serving as president at Kanomax FMT, a nanoparticle measurement solutions company where he was responsible for all aspects of the business. His strong background will provide immediate benefits for SkyWater as the company continues to revolutionize technology realization in the semiconductor industry. In addition to driving technology strategy, Dr. Kosier will lead SkyWater’s groundbreaking efforts in creating a robust open source chip design ecosystem through collaboration with Google and Efabless, supporting open source design methods, tools and IP.
“I’m very excited to join SkyWater at this unique and unprecedented time in the semiconductor and advanced technology manufacturing industries,” said Kosier. “The company addresses many exciting application markets and opportunities with its pioneering technology foundry business model, and I believe my experience leading successful strategic and technological initiatives will help drive SkyWater’s path forward to realizing its technology and business objectives.”
“We are pleased to have Steve join the SkyWater executive team. His strong background as a technologist and business leader will be instrumental as we continue to build out our differentiated technology infrastructure,” said Thomas Sonderman, SkyWater president and chief executive officer. “Complemented with Brad’s extensive government experience, these organizational changes enable us to focus on opportunities to bring advanced technology and production of semiconductors, critical to national security, back to the U.S.”
In Dr. Ferguson’s new role, he will focus on accelerating the growth of SkyWater’s advanced packaging service, expanding the company’s value chain offerings, and strengthening strategic government relationships. His background includes spearheading the original development of the custom foundry business at Cypress Semiconductor and driving significant growth at SkyWater since its spin-off in March 2017. He also drove the accreditation process to achieve Trusted Foundry status, marking the company’s entry into the aerospace and defense market, a pillar of SkyWater’s market strategy.
According to Dr. Ferguson: “I’m confident that Steve’s background and abilities will serve SkyWater well as he takes over the role of CTO. I look forward to establishing and growing SkyWater Florida’s advanced packaging capabilities while strengthening our support of the U.S. government’s efforts to reshore the semiconductor supply chain.”
About SkyWater Technology
SkyWater is the only U.S.-owned and U.S.-based pure play semiconductor foundry and is a DOD-accredited Trusted supplier, specializing in custom technology development services, volume manufacturing, and advanced packaging capabilities. Through its Technology Foundry model, SkyWater’s world-class operations in Bloomington, Minnesota and Kissimmee, Florida provide unique processing capabilities to enable quality production and advanced packaging for mixed-signal CMOS, power, rad-hard and ROIC solutions. SkyWater’s Advanced Technology Services empower development of superconducting and 3D ICs, along with carbon nanotube, photonic and MEMS devices. The company serves customers in growing markets such as aerospace & defense, automotive, biomedical, cloud & computing, consumer, industrial and IoT. For more information, please visit: www.skywatertechnology.com/.
SkyWater Company Contact: Tara Luther | 952.851.5023 | tara.luther@skywatertechnology.com
SkyWater Media Contact: Lauri Julian | 949.280.5602 | lauri.julian@skywatertechnology.com