also Vice President of Micro Machines, Inc., a company he co-founded in 1994. Prior to co-founding SiVerta, Mr.
Pashby was the MEMS Development Manager at the Xros division of Nortel, where he was responsible for the
development, fabrication and assembly of the mirror switching fabric used in Xros’s Optical Switch. This is where
Mr. Pashby met Tim Slater, the other co-founder of SiVerta.
Before joining Xros, Mr. Pashby was the Director of MEMS Development at Kumetrix, where he developed a
commercially viable hollow silicon needle with integral reaction chamber for use in blood glucose testing. Two
independent high volume MEMS manufacturing companies verified the feasibility of manufacturing the device at
less than a 5-cent cost. Pictures of the needles can be seen on Alcatel’s website, Alcatel Product Info.
Mr. Pashby was part of one of the most successful MEMS development teams, in terms of time to market, cost
and commercial success, in the history of MEMS. In 1994 Mr. Pashby and three other gentlemen started Micro
Machines, Inc. (MMI). MMI sold it’s concept for an integrated CMOS pressure sensor, and a pressure sensing
transistor, to Kavlico in early 1995 and all four founders moved to Kavlico’s headquarters in Southern California
to develop two products for automotive applications based on MMI’s IP. The first prototypes were built in early
1995 and both products began full volume production shipments at the end of 1999. A total of less than 6 years
transpired from concept to full production for a radically new MEMS device at a cost less than $10 Million. There
is a picture and report on a die based on Micro Machines technology attached to this link, www.kavlico.
com/library/pdf/scap_hr.pdf.
Mr. Pashby started his career in MEMS in 1987 when he joined NovaSensor, an early pioneer in MEMS sensors.
Initially Mr. Pashby was responsible for establishing production in NovaSensor’s wafer fab. During his 5 year
tenure at NovaSensor he went from Process Engineer to Engineering Manager, to Fab Manager and finally to
Director of Manufacturing. At that point 95 of the 120 or so people at NovaSensor worked in a department
under Mr. Pashby’s direction.
Before joining the MEMS community Mr. Pashby worked as a Process Engineer in the semiconductor industry:
First at National Semiconductor, where he was responsible for process development in the thin film and diffusion
areas of one of the worlds first 5 inch CMOS lines, and then at Micro Linear where he established and then ran,
as Fab Manager, the backend wafer fab for Micro Linear’s bipolar Tile and Cell array devices.
Mr. Pashby has a B.S. in Chemistry from Santa Clara University. He also has 4 patents issued and at least 1
more in application.