Dr. Gill Fountain

Gill Fountain graduated from NC State University with a BS in Electrical Engineering in 1980 and an MS in Electrical Engineering in 1982. Following graduation, he worked in the Center for Semiconductor Research at Research Triangle Institute focusing on device fabrication, processing equipment fabrication, low temperature plasma based processing and bonding technologies, until participating in the spin out of Ziptronix as a founder in 2000. At Ziptronix, he and the Ziptronix team focused on development of 3D fabrication technologies using direct oxide-oxide bonding as well as hybrid bonding. He was part of the Ziptronix team that first demonstrated hybrid bonding in 2004. He is one of the inventers on both the original direct bonding and hybrid bonding patents granted to Ziptronix. He joined Adeia as a result of the acquisition of Ziptronix in 2015. Since 2015 he has focused on working with the team at Adeia to further the development of 3D technologies focusing on use of Direct Bonding, Hybrid Bonding, and Direct Bonded Liquid Cooling structures, concentrating on the areas of Chemical Mechanical Polishing and hybrid bonding layer fabrication techniques and materials. Coming from a very self sufficient background, Gill is a very hands-on engineer working directly in the fab as well as conceiving and building unique processing implements and equipment where needed. Gill has over 60 technical publications and over 100 patents.