ASR&D Team

The ASR&D team includes a small group of creative and specialized engineers and scientists with extensive industrial experience with the design and production of SAW devices, including chemical and physical sensors of various kinds. Additional support personnel provide financial, administrative, and specialized scientific support on a consultancy or part-time employee basis.

Key employees include:

Jacqueline H. Hines, Ph.D. – President

Dr. Hines holds a B.S. in Applied and Engineering Physics from Cornell University, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Central Florida. She served as an instructor at the Naval Nuclear Power School in Orlando, FL, and then became qualified as an Engineering Duty Officer (EDO). Dr. Hines served as an EDO in the U. S. Naval Reserves until she resigned her commission as a LCDR. NAVSEA activities included evaluating the radiation sensitivity of SAW devices using facilities at the Naval Research Labs (NRL) and Brookhaven National Labs, the technical design review of a digital sidelobe cancellation system for the Raytheon AN-SPS 49 radar system, and oversight of complex ship overhaul activities during drydocking availabilities. Dr. Hines founded ASR&D in August 2005 to commercialize the SAW sensor technology being developed under NASA Phase II STTR contract NNK05OB31C, on which she was the PI. Since that time, ASR&D has successfully completed six Phase I and two Phase II SBIR/STTR projects, and is currently performing on and negotiating contracts for several additional SBIR/STTR programs. These programs have included development of wireless SAW-based sensors and sensor systems, and development of SAW wireless sensor-tag interface devices. Dr. Hines has extensive experience in the planning, management and execution of SAW technology research and development programs and product transition to manufacturing from more than a decade she spent managing the R&D department at Sawtek Inc. in Orlando FL. Dr. Hines also has in-depth prior experience in development and fielding of polymer coated SAW sensors for chemical agent and toxic industrial chemical detection and quantification. Her prior projects include DARPA program TRP-DE-FC07-95ID13343, a roughly $2 million TRP program that resulted in the successful development of a six-sensor SAW array for detection and quantification of tricholoroethylene (TCE), perchloroethylene (PCE), and other volatile organic chemicals at low levels, alone and in mixtures, for use in environmental cleanup operations. This system was successfully field tested at the DOE's Savannah River site in 1998. Additionally, Dr. Hines was involved in the development of several commercially available products for chemical agent detection, including the HAZMATCAD® Plus hand-held chemical agent detector (now available from MSA) developed by Microsensor Systems Inc. while MSI was a subsidiary of Sawtek Inc. Dr. Hines holds patents on SAW sensors for physical, chemical, and biological sensing applications, and has several additional patents pending. She is a Senior Member of IEEE, has been an active volunteer in IEEE for more than 25 years, and is currently President-Elect of the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Society. Dr. Hines is a recipient of the IEEE Third Millenium Medal (2000).

Leland P. Solie, Ph.D. - ASR&D Sr. Scientist

Dr. Solie, an expert in surface acoustic wave technology, joined ASR&D as a Senior Scientist in August 2005. He is widely recognized for his creative SAW-based device structures, and holds over 35 U.S. Patents in technologies related to this field, with several additional patents pending. Dr. Solie is well known for his work on tapered transducer and reflector devices, and has designed numerous commercially available high performance SAW filters using these techniques. He has experience in SAW sensors for physical sensing applications, and is a co-inventor (with Dr. Hines) on a patent on an innovative tire pressure sensor using SAW technology (U.S. Patent No. 6,571,638 – Surface-acoustic-wave pressure sensor and associated methods). He has two additional patents pending in the area of SAW-based pressure sensors, and several patents issued and pending from his work at ASR&D. His education and experience are elaborated further in the abbreviated resume (below). Dr. Solie holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University. He is a fellow of the IEEE, and has more than 35 years of industrial experience in the design and development of acoustic wave-based devices and electronic systems.

University Collaborators

ASR&D works with leading university experts in fields related to sensor devices and systems under development. Collaborators include:

Eric U. Borguet, Ph.D. – Temple University

Dr. Borguet leads the Borguet Group at Temple University. He has expertise in interfacial chemistry, nanomaterials and nanofilm deposition and characterization, and selective film formation and chemical functionalization that directly contribute to ASR&D's chemical and biological sensor development efforts.

Ali Abedi, Ph. D. – University of Maine

Dr. Abedi is an Assistant professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the University of Maine. His research into coding and information theory, wireless communications, and wireless sensors make him a valuable collaborator for ASR&D's coded sensor development work.