The principals

Five careers. 227 years. One material.

Every engagement is led by a principal. There is no analyst tier between you and the person who has seen the problem before — which is, in practice, the only reason to hire a firm this size.

Between them our principals cover the five disciplines a quartz problem tends to cross: the material itself, the wafer it ends up affecting, the chemistry that governs purity and contamination, the facility the work happens in, and the equipment that makes it. Most quartz failures live in the seams between those disciplines, which is exactly where a single-specialist opinion tends to stop.

YW
Yoshiyuki Watanabe
Founding Principal · Semiconductor Advanced Materials
46 years in semiconductor advanced materials

Yoshiyuki founded the practice and leads its technical direction. His work centres on the decision that sits underneath every other one — which material family, which grade, and why — and on translating a process environment into a specification that holds up commercially and technically.

He is typically the principal a client speaks to first, and he stays on the engagement through to the recommendation.

Material family selection Grade specification Fused natural quartz Synthetic fused silica Supplier qualification Technical due diligence
SY
Seiji Yamashita
Principal · Semiconductor Technology & Advanced Wafer Manufacturing
45 years in semiconductor technology

Seiji's discipline is advanced wafer manufacturing, and his role here is to keep every quartz decision anchored to what it does to the wafer. Crystal growth, thermal processing, contamination and the yield consequences of a material choice are his territory.

On crucible, boat and process-tube work he is usually the principal who can say whether a proposed change will show up in device data — and how long it will take to appear.

Crystal growth & CZ process Crucible performance Thermal processing Wafer contamination Yield impact analysis Process integration
HI
Hiroshi Ikeda
Principal · Chemical Engineering & Advanced Materials
45 years in chemical engineering

Hiroshi covers the chemistry of the material: the synthesis and fusion routes, purity and hydroxyl control, the behaviour of trace metals at temperature, and the etching and cleaning practice that determines a part's real service life.

Contamination investigations generally run through him — tracing an unwanted element back through the fabrication route to where it actually entered.

Flame hydrolysis & synthesis routes Purity & OH control Contamination pathways Etching & cleaning chemistry Devitrification Analytical methods
TK
Tomohiro Kamochi
Principal · Mechanical Engineering, Fab Development & Installation
45 years in mechanical engineering

Tomohiro takes projects from drawing to running line. Facility layout, process flow, utilities, tool installation, commissioning and the production ramp that follows are his responsibility.

His value is concentrated in the phase where plans meet reality: the interferences, utility mismatches and access problems that only surface once equipment is actually on the floor.

Facility & layout planning Equipment installation Utilities & infrastructure Commissioning & start-up Safety & compliance Production ramp
JA
Jiro Ariji
Principal · Mechanical Engineering, Advanced Equipment
46 years in mechanical engineering

Jiro's focus is the machinery that makes the material — fusion furnaces, drawing towers, glass lathes, CNC finishing and metrology. Specification, evaluation, acceptance and the mechanical detail that separates equipment which holds tolerance from equipment which merely claims to.

He also leads much of the operator and engineer training that follows an equipment or technology-transfer project.

Fusion furnaces Tube drawing equipment Glass lathes & CNC finishing Metrology Acceptance testing Operator training

Which principal you get depends on the problem.

A grade decision starts with Yoshiyuki. A yield excursion starts with Seiji. A contamination trace starts with Hiroshi. An installation starts with Tomohiro. A machine that will not hold tolerance starts with Jiro.

Most engagements end up involving two or three of them, because most quartz problems turn out to sit between disciplines.

Tell us what you are dealing with

Combined experience

227 years, and every one of them in this industry.

None of our principals arrived at quartz from somewhere else. That is the point: the failure modes of this material take decades to see enough times to recognise on sight.

Discipline coverage
Principal Discipline Years
Yoshiyuki Watanabe Semiconductor · Advanced Materials 46
Seiji Yamashita Semiconductor Technology · Advanced Wafer Manufacturing 45
Hiroshi Ikeda Chemical Engineering · Advanced Materials 45
Tomohiro Kamochi Mechanical Engineering · Fab Development & Installation 45
Jiro Ariji Mechanical Engineering · Advanced Equipment 46
Total Five disciplines, end to end 227

Talk to the person who has seen it before.

Describe the problem and we will put the right principal on the call — not a salesperson.