Industrializing the Next Compute Era: From Materials to Manufacturing
Quantum computing, photonics, and other emerging technologies promise capabilities beyond traditional semiconductor scaling. Their success will depend on device innovation as well as the ability to integrate new materials, scale manufacturing processes, and build resilient supply chains.
Drawing on experience across quantum, photonic, and advanced semiconductor platforms, SkyWater’s SVP of Engineering Percy Gilbert will explore the critical role materials science plays in transforming promising concepts into manufacturable products. The presentation will examine the challenges of materials qualification, process integration, advanced packaging, and ecosystem development required to support next-generation computing architectures.
As the industry moves beyond Moore's Law, competitive advantage will increasingly be defined by the ability to convert materials innovation into scalable, reliable manufacturing. Attendees will gain a foundry perspective on the opportunities, risks, and investment priorities shaping the future of computing.
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Percy Gilbert is Senior Vice President of Engineering at Skywater Technology. He provides the technical vision and strategy for developing the technologies that enable customers to achieve successful silicon in current and future designs. As SVP of Engineering, he’s responsible for managing all engineering functions including Platform, Advanced Technology Services (ATS), Advanced Packaging and Design Enablement engineering.
From 2021 to 2025, Dr. Gilbert served as Vice President of New Product Development in the Edge Processing Business Line at NXP. In this role, he drove development of all new edge processing offerings including microcontrollers, apps processors, connectivity enablement and solutions.
Prior to joining NXP, Dr. Gilbert served as Vice President, Enterprise Systems Product Engineering and Memory/Flash Development at IBM. In this role he had responsibility for bring-up, qualification and manufacturing ramp of IBM’s next generation microprocessors and was the lead executive responsible for managing the company’s new fabless engineering organization. During his 21 years at IBM, Dr. Gilbert held positions of increasing responsibility in technology, product development and manufacturing. As Vice President, Technology Development in IBM’s Semiconductor Research and Development Center (SRDC), he led development of the company’s entire portfolio of leading-edge process technologies (65nm, 45nm, 32nm & 22nm) and served as lead executive responsible for management of IBM’s Joint Development Alliances.
Dr. Gilbert began his career at Motorola in the Advanced Products Research and Development Lab (APRDL) in Austin, Texas.
Finally, Dr. Gilbert received his Bachelors, Masters and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University. He has been awarded 10 US patents and is the author of 23 technical papers. He is married and has two children.