The innovation team behind GTE’s success as a leading provider of custom thermal management  materials  are Sion Pickard PhD and Todd Johnson MBA who are partners in thermal management materials development.

Sion Pickard: Dr. Pickard has over 35 years experience in leading the development of custom materials both in small business and at corporate level.  Over the past 15 years, he has successfully developed high thermal conductivity Metal-diamond composites for thermal management  of power electronics. Sion Pickard has over 30 Journal and conference publications and has successfully won 12 DOD/NASA Phase I and Phase II SBIR Awards, 5 patents for novel materials development for both thermal management and other applications.’

After success in developing and commercializing Aluminum–diamond materials which are now marketed commercially, focus is now on the Copper-Diamond system. Successful development over the last 5 years has produced a high thermal conductivity Copper-Diamond (>700W/m.K) with low CTE  (6-8 ppm/K over temperature range of 50-300 centigrade) suitable for many electronic thermal management applications.

Todd Johnson, MBA, Co-Founder: Mr. Johnson brings over 20 years experience in technology development and government contracting for BAAs and SBIRs. He has commercialized a range of technologies, including metal-coated powder, lattice block structures, and copper-diamond.

 Method for making high thermal conductivity Al based metal matrix composite

                Patent number: 8066937
Type: Grant
Filed: Oct 8, 2007
Date of Patent: Nov 29, 2011
Patent Publication Number: 20080187661
Assignee: Nano Materials International Corporation (Tucson, AZ)
Inventors: Sion M. Pickard (Tucson, AZ), James C. Withers (Tucson, AZ), Raouf O. Loutfy (Tucson, AZ)
Primary Examiner: Roy King
Assistant Examiner: Ngoclan Mai
Attorney: Hayes Soloway P.C.
Application Number: 11/868,664