The Unisantis Electronics team is composed of seasoned individuals with a storied background in semiconductor design and fabrication leadership, having previously been responsible for developing multiple high-volume logic and memory devices, as well as leading the fabs that manufactured them.
Dr. Fujio Masuoka, Co-Founder & Advisor
Dr. Masuoka co-founded Unisantis Electronics in 2004 and was its first CTO, inventing the SGT. He is currently an advisor to the company.
After joining Toshiba’s Research & Development Centre in 1971, he and his team invented Stacked-gate Avalanche-injection Metal Oxide Semiconductor (SAMOS) memory, a precursor to EEPROM. He later developed DRAM with a double poly-Si structure. He then moved into the semiconductor division and developed 1Mbit DRAM. By 1980 he had invented flash memory, introducing NOR flash in 1984 and NAND flash in 1987. In 1988 he invented the Gate-All-Around (GAA) MOSFET, also known as the GAAFET. He left Toshiba in 1994 becoming a Professor at Tohoku University.
Dr. Masuoka has received many awards, including the Watanabe Prize, the National Invention Award, the Morris Liebmann Memorial Award, the Grand Prize in the Ichimura Award, the Solid State Devices and Materials Award, The Economist Innovation Award, the Purple Ribbon Medal of Honour, the Order of the Sacred Treasure and the Honda Prize, amongst others. He was also inducted into the Computer History Museum and the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame.
Dr. Masuoka has presented over 79 papers, holds over 200 patents and has a PhD from Tohoku University.
Dr. Nozomu Harada, CTO
Dr. Harada leads Unisantis Electronics’ technology development and engineering. He originally joined in 2009 to focus on the development of SGT.
He previously worked for Toshiba Corporation, joining its Research & Development Centre in 1970, where he engaged in the R&D of advanced solid-state image sensors. Later he engaged in the development of poly-Si TFT-LCD and other advanced LCD technologies at the Toshiba’s Display Device Engineering Laboratory and the Display Engineering Center.
He was a Professor of electrical engineering at National Institute of Technology, Fukui College from 2002 to 2009.
He has received two Invention Awards from the Japan Institute of Invention and Innovation, in 1990 and 1991, respectively. He received the Suzuki Award and the Niwa-Takayanagi Best Paper Award from the Institute of Television Engineers of Japan in 1973 and 1984, respectively, and received the Best Paper Award from the Institute of Electrostatics Japan in 1998. His team received the Technology & Engineering Emmy Award for the development of the solid-state camera in 1991.
He has presented more than 30 papers and holds over 200 patents. He holds BS, MS and PhD degrees from National Shizuoka University.
Dr. Masakazu Kakumu, VP of Engineering & Development
Dr. Kakumu leads engineering, process integration and development at Unisantis Electronics and is also the primary developer of KFBM. He joined in 2021.
Prior to joining Unisantis, he spent 35 years at Toshiba, culminating in roles as EVP of Toshiba Semiconductor (System LSI division) and Corporate VP of Toshiba Corporation. During his time at Toshiba, he was also the General Manager of Oita operations, a 300mm wafer fab. He possesses deep experience in high volume device manufacturing, yield management and process integration.
After leaving Toshiba, he served as an advisor to the IoT business unit of TDK Corporation, experimenting with machine learning for wearable devices.
He has presented over 100 papers internationally and holds 23 US patents. He holds a PhD from Waseda University and is an alum of the Harvard Advanced Management Program (AMP).
