River Sonic Solutions LLC

Award winning, Oxford Educated scientist whose areas of expertise include medical imaging, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, medical devices, sensors, MEMS, signal processing and image processing.

- 5 trial testimonies and 14 depositions.
- Litigation experience includes district court, ITC and PTAB matters.
- Extensive Intellectual Property experience including patent development, analysis, licensing, and litigation.
- Serial inventor holding 27 U.S. Patents with 20 applications pending.
- Diverse industry experience including multi-nationals such as GE, Medtronic, Fujifilm, Samsung and Siemens as well as several start-ups.
- Well published.
- Winner of grants from National Institute of Health.
- Extensive international consulting experience.
- IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) Senior Member since 2004.
- Three years' experience teaching electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois.

Holds BA and MA in Physics from Oxford University as well as a Doctorate from Oxford in Materials Science.

Services

Dr. Chris Daft provides expert consultation and testimony for patent and trade secret litigation, with a focus on medical devices, MEMS, signal processing, transducers, and microelectronics.

Highlights of Recent Work

• Deposition and trial testimony experience, mostly in patent litigation (PTAB and ITC) and trade secret matters.
• Deposition and trial testimony experience in the Superior Court of California, and US District Courts.
• Chief Technology Officer of a neurotech startup.
• System design for a wearable cancer monitoring device.
• Portable point-of-care imaging (research supported by a grant to River Sonic Solutions from the National Institutes of Health).
• Design of beam formation and image reconstruction techniques for transcranial imaging and treatment (with the University of Arizona).
• Acoustics and transducer design for medical and industrial applications.
• Design of MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems) transducers, signal processing and front-end electronics for pediatric otitis diagnosis.

Litigation Support Services

Dr. Chris Daft has testified in 14 depositions and in 5 trials.

Areas of Expertise

Additional Expertise:

Microelectronics, ASIC, MEMS, FDA, Neuro Modulation, Regulatory, Semiconductors, Biometric Security, Ablation, Tomography, Parallel Computing, Surgical Guidance, Wearable Medical Device, Biometric Security.

Areas Served

Nationwide USA; UK.

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Professional Experience

SANMAI TECHNOLOGIES, PBC (2020 – present)
Chief Technology Officer
Responsible for technology at Public Benefit Corporation aimed at non-pharmaceutical treatment of mental illness.

RIVER SONIC SOLUTIONS, LLC (2012 – present)
Principal
Technical Consulting and Expert witness practice in: Imaging, especially Medical Imaging; Patents; Ultrasound; Electronics; Transducers; Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC); Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS); FDA approval of medical devices; Signal Processing; Design for Six-Sigma (DFSS); Semiconductors/ICs; Biometric security; Surgical Tissue Ablation; Tomography; Parallel Computing; Minimally Invasive Surgical Guidance; Wearables and Hearables.

CEPHASONICS, INC. (previously Samplify)
Chief Scientist, Santa Clara, CA: 2011-2013
• Responsible for technical direction of a start-up seeking to commoditize front-end and beam formation electronics.
• Advised CEO on all technical matters; also deeply involved in angel and VC fund-raising.
• Extensive customer interaction: marketed products to imaging and nontraditional customers.

SIEMENS HEALTHCARE, ULTRASOUND DIVISION
Senior Manager, Engineering, Mountain View, CA: 2005-2011
• Delivered 3 ASICs on tight schedule to support new Silicon Ultrasound product line.
• Managed team of eight engineers to design, test and manufacture all electronics needed for introduction of Silicon Ultrasound transducers.
• Technology evangelist presenting weekly to customers at Siemens' Innovation Center.

SENSANT CORPORATION
Manager, Research and Development, San Leandro, CA: 2003-2005
• Managed group which created electronics for first 2D and 3D images using silicon ultrasound transducer.
• Co-authored successful grant proposal to DARPA on battlefield ultrasound imaging and surgery. $7.5 M was awarded to Sensant and its collaborator.

Senior Staff Engineer, San Leandro, CA: 2000-2003
• Design of new types of imaging systems using capacitive micro-fabricated ultrasound transducers (cMUTs, also known as Silicon Ultrasound.)
• Co-authored several successful SBIR grant proposals.

GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY
Physicist, Corporate R&D, Niskayuna, NY: 1990-2000
• Designed algorithms for IC implementation; resulting beamforming IC was the heart of GE's successful entry into the premium ultrasound market.
• Developed statistical methods (now patented) for robust simultaneous design of transducer and imaging system to six-sigma quality standards.
• Much transducer design, acoustic field simulation and measurement.
• Research in signal processing for improved image quality and blood flow estimation. Several of these signal processing innovations are used in current GE products.

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Urbana, IL: 1987-1990
• Research in scanning laser acoustic microscopy to characterize tissue, and applications of neural networks to ultrasonic imaging.
• Taught undergraduate courses in circuit theory, medical imaging, and acoustics.
• Thesis Advisor for Masters' students and undergraduate senior projects.

Legal Experience & Services

Testimony Experience

1. Hologic v. Fujifilm, Certain X-ray Breast Imaging Devices and Components Thereof, ITC Investigation No. 337-TA-1063. Deposition: Feb. 8, 2018; Trial testimony: Apr. 11, 2018.
2. Fujifilm v. Hologic, Patent Trial and Appeal Board, Case IPR2018-00595, patent number 7,688,940. Deposition: Nov. 27, 2018.
3. Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara, Case 17CV311668, Lobo v. Intel Mobile. Deposition: Sep. 19, 2019; Trial testimony Feb. 26-27, 2020.
4. Philips North America v. Garmin International, Fitbit and others, Certain Wearable Monitoring Devices, Systems and Components Thereof, ITC Investigation No. 337-TA-1190. Deposition: Aug. 14, 2020; Trial testimony: Oct. 23, 2020.
5. BTL Industries v. Allergan USA, Zeltiq Aesthetics and others, Certain Non-Invasive Aesthetic Body Contouring Devices, Components Thereof, and Methods of Using the Same, ITC Investigation No. 337-TA-1219. Deposition: March 24, 2021; Trial testimony: June 18, 2021.
6. US District Court, Central District of California, Southern Division, Case 8:18-cv2001, Masimo and Cercacor v. True Wearables and Lamego. Deposition: August 4, 2021; Trial testimony: March 18-22, 2022.
7. US District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, Case 1:19-cv01374, Howe v. Speedway. Deposition: Sept. 24, 2021.
8. ReCor Medical and Otsuka Medical Devices v. Medtronic Ireland Manufacturing, Case IPR2022-00431, patent number 8,845,629. Initial deposition: Sept. 30, 2022; Rebuttal deposition: Mar. 2, 2023.
9. US District Court, Western District of Texas, Waco Division, Case 6:21-cv-00166ADA, CPC Patent Technologies v. HMD Global Oy, Invalidity deposition: Jan. 9, 2023; Noninfringement deposition: Feb. 9, 2023.
10. US District Court, Northern District of California, Oakland Division, Case 4:19-cv04162-YGR, Carl Zeiss Meditec v. Topcon Medical Systems et al., Deposition: May 4, 2023.
11. Butterfly Network v. FUJIFILM Sonosite, Patent Trial and Appeal Board, Case IPR2022-01575, patent number 7,867,168. Deposition: Aug. 2, 2023.
12. US District Court, District of Maine, Case 1:23-cv-00032, BTL Industries v. Rejuva Fresh and Jacobs. Claim Construction Deposition: Mar. 26, 2024.

Affiliations

• IEEE Consultants Network of Silicon Valley: member from 2012 to Present.
• IEEE Senior Member: September 1987 to Present. The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers is the world's largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity.

Awards & Honors

• Senior Key Expert, Siemens AG, February 2009: Siemens defines the Key Expert position as “a career path for key technology experts analogous to that for our top managerial talents.”
• Willis R. Whitney Technical Achievement Award, GE Global Research, August 2000: For participating in the development of a Six-Sigma software toolkit, which was widely deployed within GE.
• Six-Sigma Certified Green Belt, GE Global Research, April 1998: A certified Green Belt at GE has taken classes and completed several projects resulting in cost savings for the company. In my case these involved Design for Six-Sigma (DFSS).
• Dushman Award, GE Global Research, June 1994: Highest-ranking team award for contributions to the introduction of GE's first premium ultrasound product, the LOGIQ 700.

Seminars & Training

Many courses in Expert Witnessing from SEAK, Inc.

Publications

Invited Papers
• Daft, C.M.W., "Conformable transducers for large-volume, operator-independent imaging," Ultrasonics Symposium, 2010 IEEE, pp.798-808, 11-14 Oct. 2010
• Daft, C.; Wagner, P.; Bymaster, B.; Panda, S.; Patel, K.; Ladabaum, I., "cMUTs and electronics for 2D and 3D imaging: monolithic integration, in-handle chip sets and system implications," Ultrasonics Symposium, 2005 IEEE, vol.1, pp.463-474, 18-21 Sept. 2005
• Daft, C.M.W., "Neural networks for image analysis," Ultrasonics Symposium, 1990. Proceedings., IEEE 1990, pp.1425-1433 vol.3, 4-7 Dec 1990

Other Papers
• Reznik, S.; Sanguinetti, J.; Tyler, W.; Daft, C.; Allen, J., “A Double-Blind Pilot Study of Transcranial Ultrasound (TUS) as a Five-Day Intervention: TUS Mitigates Worry among Depressed Participants,” Neurology, Psychiatry and Brain Research 37C, 60-66 (2020)
• Sanguinetti, J.; Hameroff, S.; Smith, E.; Sato, T.; Daft, C.; Tyler, W.; Allen, J., “Transcranial Focused Ultrasound to the Right Prefrontal Cortex Improves Mood and Alters Functional Connectivity in Humans,” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, vol. 14, 52 (2020)
• Nistorica, C.; Latev, D.; Gardner, D.; Imai, D. and Daft, C., "Characterization of a 3D-MEMS piezoelectric transducer for portable imaging systems," 2015 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS), Taipei, 2015, pp. 1-4 • Daft, C.; Brueske, D.; Wagner, P.; Liu, D., "A Matrix Transducer Design with Improved Image Quality and Acquisition Rate," Ultrasonics Symposium, 2007 IEEE, pp.411-415, 28-31 Oct. 2007
• Daft, C.; Panda, S.; Wagner, P.; Ladabaum, I., "Two Approaches to Electronically Scanned 3D Imaging Using cMUTs," Ultrasonics Symposium, 2006. IEEE, pp.685-688, 2-6 Oct. 2006
• Liu, D.; Brueske, D.; Willsie, T.; Daft, C., "Sigma-delta dynamic receive beamforming," Ultrasonics Symposium, 2008. IUS 2008. IEEE, pp.1270-1273, 2-5 Nov. 2008
• Daft, C.; Wagner, P.; Bymaster, B.; Panda, S.; Patel, K.; Ladabaum, I., "cMUTs and electronics for 2D and 3D imaging: monolithic integration, in-handle chip sets and system implications," Ultrasonics Symposium, 2005 IEEE, vol.1, no., pp.463-474, 18-21 Sept. 2005
• Daft, C.; Calmes, S.; da Graca, D.; Patel, K.; Wagner, P.; Ladabaum, I., "Microfabricated ultrasonic transducers monolithically integrated with high voltage electronics," Ultrasonics Symposium, 2004 IEEE, vol.1, no., pp.493-496 Vol.1, 23-27 Aug. 2004
• Daft, C.; Wagner, P.; Panda, S.; Ladabaum, I., "Elevation beam profile control with bias polarity patterns applied to microfabricated ultrasound transducers," Ultrasonics, 2003 IEEE Symposium on, vol.2, no., pp.1578-1581 Vol.2, 5-8 Oct. 2003
• Daft, C.M.W.; Leue, W.M.; Thomenius, K.E.; Macdonald, M.C.; Odegaard, L.A., "Comprehensive imager simulation for improved acoustic power control," Ultrasonics Symposium, 1999. Proceedings. 1999 IEEE, vol.2, no., pp.1571-1575 vol.2, 1999
• Wildes, D.G.; Chiao, R.Y.; Daft, C.M.W.; Rigby, K.W.; Smith, L.S.; Thomenius, K.E., "Elevation performance of 1.25D and 1.5D transducer arrays," Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, IEEE Transactions on, vol.44, no.5, pp.1027-1037, Sept. 1997
• Daft, C.M.W.; Engeler, W.E., "Windowing of wide-band ultrasound transducers," Ultrasonics Symposium, 1996. Proceedings., 1996 IEEE, vol.2, no., pp.1541-1544 vol.2, 3-6 Nov 1996
• Daft, C.M.W.; Wildes, D.G.; Thomas, L.J.; Smith, L.S.; Lewandowski, R.S.; Leue, W.M.; Rigby, K.W.; Chalek, C.L.; Hatfield, W.T., "A 1.5D transducer for medical ultrasound," Ultrasonics Symposium, 1994. Proceedings., 1994 IEEE, vol.3, no., pp.1491-1495 vol.3, Oct. 31 1994-Nov. 3 1994
• Daft, C.M.W.; Siddiqi, T.A.; Fitting, D.W.; Meyer, R.A.; O'Brien, W.D., Jr., "In-vivo fetal ultrasound exposimetry," Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, IEEE Transactions on, vol.37, no.6, pp.501-505, Nov. 1990
• Daft, C.M.W.; Smith, L.S.; O'Donnell, M., "Beam profiles and images from two-dimensional arrays," Ultrasonics Symposium, 1990. Proceedings., IEEE 1990, pp.775-779 vol.2, 4-7 Dec 1990
• Conrath, B.C.; Daft, C.M.W.; O'Brien, W.D., Jr., "Applications of neural networks to ultrasound tomography," Ultrasonics Symposium, 1989. Proceedings., IEEE 1989, pp.1007-1010 vol.2, 3-6 Oct 1989
• Daft, C.M.W.; Siddiqi, T.A.; Fitting, D.W.; Meyer, R.A.; O'Brien, W.D., Jr., "In-vivo fetal ultrasound exposimetry," Ultrasonics Symposium, 1989. Proceedings., IEEE 1989, pp.1053-1056 vol.2, 3-6 Oct 1989
• Weaver, J.M.R.; Daft, C.M.W.; Briggs, G.A.D., "A quantitative acoustic microscope with multiple detection modes," Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, IEEE Transactions on, vol.36, no.5, pp.554-560, Sept. 1989
• Daft, C.M.W.; Briggs, G.A.D., "Wideband acoustic microscopy of tissue," Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, IEEE Transactions on, vol.36, no.2, pp.258-263, March 1989 Daft, C. M. W.; Briggs, G. A. D., “The elastic microstructure of various tissues,” The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 85, 416-422 (1989)
• Daft, C. M. W.; Briggs, G. A. D.; O'Brien, W. D., Jr. “Frequency dependence of tissue attenuation measured by acoustic microscopy” The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 85, 2194-2201 (1989)
• Daft, C.M.W.; Briggs, G.A.D.; O'Brien, W.D., Jr., "Frequency dependence of tissue attenuation measured by acoustic microscopy," Ultrasonics Symposium, 1988 Proceedings., IEEE 1988, pp.971-974 vol.2, 2-5 Oct 1988
• Daft, Christopher M. W.; Briggs, G. A. D., “Wideband acoustic microscopy of tissue,” The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 83, S110-S110 (1988)
• Bamber, J.C.; Daft, C., “Adaptive filtering for reduction of speckle in ultrasonic pulse-echo images,” Ultrasonics 24(1), 41-44 (1986)

Education

• D. Phil. (equal to Ph.D.) in Materials Science, Oxford University, UK, 1987. Thesis title: Acoustic microscopy of biological tissue.
• M.A. in Physics, Oxford University, UK, 1985.
• B.A. in Physics with 1st class honors, Oxford University, UK, 1984.