Career History

David’s career showcases his evident expertise, ingenuity, and passionate spirit. After David graduated with his MS from VA Tech in 1996, he started his first company – ACT Microdevices – building a semiconductor style clean-room out of a burnt down church and growing it from cash flows while living in it. – ACT (Advanced Coating Technologies) was changed to ACT MicroDevices, then re-branded as Haleos, Inc –  a manufacturer of MEMS based fiberoptic components and assemblies.

Raising venture capital for expansion in their 4th year (when David as 26)  they grew to a 20M/yr run rate, implemented ISO9000-2000, SAP, and filed 120 patents in 18 months.  While serving as the President/CEO, David invented a Silicon Optical Bench platform that created hermetic micro-cavity RF packages at the wafer level for laser transmitters (Si-Pak), and formed a strategic alliance with Newport for joint development of next generation fiber optics and photonics manufacturing automation equipment. Despite the industry crash in 2001,  it was acquired by $8B Rohm and Haas (ROH)  – now Dow Chemical – in 2002.

Once the company was acquired, David joined the Rohm and Haas team as their Director of Product Development and R&D reporting to the CTO  Gary Calabrese and Electronic Materials division president David Schram.  David was a part of the corporate IP Strategy team with corporate council Jonathan Baskin.

David was the primary inventer/developer two important technologies: Si-Pak – hermetic laser packages and PolyStrata(tm)  – a precision 3D additive manufacturing technology used for  microwave/mm wave packaging platform.  PolyStrata was initially accomplished by winning two $10M DARPA programs: 3D-MERFS and DMT led at DARPA by Dr. John Evans under director Tony Tether.  3D-MERFS (Micro Electrical RF Systems) went through 3 phases and was given a DARPA innovation award in 2005.

In July of 2008,  David bought back his business and IP from Rohm and Haas just before the DOW acquisition. To complete the manufacturability issues left at the close of DARPA funding, David successfully sold ~ 50 of his optoelectronics patents to Samsung to reinvest it into PolyStrata. Spinning out from Rohm and Haas – his second company, NuvoTronics, Inc  – a manufacturer of RF, radar, and wireless systems for defense and telecom organizations would focus on optimizing the technology David had invented from DARPA’s 3-D MERFS and DMT programs.

While serving as the President and CEO, David and his excellent multidisciplinary team of engineers and scientists designed multiple products using the technology, generating numerous contracts and awards from the space and defense industries. As the company continued to grow and expand it’s game-changing technology resulting in a portfolio of over 100 patents,

David added a 80,000 sw ft facility in NC, complimenting the VA fab and the Boston and LA offices, creating a combined facility space of over 100,000 square-feet. In 2017, the company was the first in North Carolina and Virginia to achieve a full AS9100D Certification for shipping space qualified hardware.

After David left the company in mid 2018 (due to a disagreement with his board over selling versus raising the money to move to large scale manufacturing for 5G telecom), he remained a highly active board member and consultant, until its acquisition by Cubic Corporation shortly thereafter in March 2019 for $64M in cash and added earn out options.

After the sale, David mostly took off several years to help raise his two children.  Now that they have both graduated in 2024, David is back working on a new series of companies and innovations.   David is passionate about restoring US manufacturing in general, and is currently also active with his partner Tony Mauk working toward sustainable job creation and training for our US Native American population.

David’s Publications

Technology Invented

Use google patent search for David William Sherrer II and you will find about 130 US and foreign patents