2021 Inductees

Rajiv Singh

Rajiv K. Singh, Ph.D.

Vice President
Chemical Mechanical Polishing Slurries
Entegris, Inc.
Professor Emeritus
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
University of Florida

26 U.S. Patents

Rajiv K. Singh is the Vice President of Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) Slurries at Entegris, Inc. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Florida and former CEO and CTO of Sinmat, a start-up company he founded to focus on innovation and commercialization of CMP slurries. Singh is a leading expert in advanced semiconductor processing, including chemical mechanical polishing and innovative processing of next generation materials.

As CEO and CTO of Sinmat, Singh commercialized a number of his inventions that he developed over the course of his 30-year career at the University of Florida, most notably a unique, defect-free polishing process for mechanically hard advanced electronic materials such as silicon carbide, gallium nitride, sapphire and diamond. These processes are currently being used by leading global companies in some of the fastest growing markets involving manufacturing of smartwatches, smartphones, defense systems, advanced silicon carbide electronics for electric vehicles, and 5G communications infrastructure. Singh’s polishing technologies have been employed in more than 50 million smartwatches worldwide, a majority of the million-plus luxury electric vehicles, as well as advanced fighter aircraft and helicopter optical systems. Singh’s technology is also part of silicon carbide-based power modules (instead of traditional silicon-based electronics) that increase battery mileage of electric vehicles by nearly 10% (e.g., Tesla mileage extended by 30 miles) and enables 800V fast charging technology (e.g., Porsche EV achieves 250-mile charge in less than 20 minutes). In 2020, Entegris, Inc. acquired Sinmat for approximately $75 million.

Singh is a Fellow of IEEE, AAAS, ASM, the Materials Research Society, the American Physical Society, and the Electrochemical Society, and he is the winner of four R&D 100 awards for developing innovative CMP slurries for polishing metals and dielectrics.