SirenOpt is developing a real-time sensing and software platform to improve the manufacturing performance and yield of batteries, solar cells, and carbon conversion technologies. The sensor collects critical manufacturing data that is otherwise unobtainable, and the software uses the sensing data to quantify and mitigate manufacturing variability in real-time.
FELLOW
Jared O'Leary
Jared O'Leary is the co-founder and CEO of SirenOpt. O’Leary earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from UC Berkeley, where he investigated learning-based methods to characterize, model, and control advanced materials manufacturing processes. He co-founded SirenOpt to commercialize technology he helped develop during his doctoral work. Previously, O’Leary worked as an engineer and team lead at Theranos and earned a B.S. with honors and distinction in chemical engineering at Stanford.
TECHNOLOGY
Critical Need
Thin films, or micro- and nano-scale materials with unique functional properties, enable many clean energy industries, such as lithium-based batteries, solar cells, and carbon conversion. Minimal-waste manufacturing of high-performance thin films will be vital for achieving society’s net-zero carbon emission goals. Because existing thin film sensors cannot operate within most sections of manufacturing lines, manufacturers often complete hundreds of processing steps before they can test (a small portion of) their products and detect problems. Current thin-film manufacturing thus often yields many low-quality products, or off-spec products that must be discarded.
Technology Vision
SirenOpt is developing a real-time sensing and software platform to improve thin film manufacturing performance and yield. Its sensor, enabled by low-temperature plasmas and physics-informed machine learning, is compact, can be integrated into manufacturing lines, and can collect multiple thin film property measurements in parallel and in real-time. By measuring factors such as thickness, density, conductivity, chemical composition, and contamination, it collects critical manufacturing data that is otherwise unobtainable. SirenOpt’s optimization-based decision-making software then uses the sensing data to quantify and mitigate thin film manufacturing variability in real-time.
Potential for Impact
SirenOpt’s unique sensing and software technology enables more material-efficient, reliable, and higher-performance manufacturing of batteries, solar cells, and carbon conversion technologies, critical components of a sustainable economy. SirenOpt thus has the potential to substantially increase the adoption of these and future versions of such clean energy technologies, which will help society achieve net-zero carbon emissions on a global scale. Furthermore, by non-destructively accessing new atomic-level understanding, SirenOpt can enable the design and manufacturing of electronic devices of the future, which have the potential to transform many other fields such as transportation and healthcare.