Gurtej Sandhu

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Dr. Gurtej Singh Sandhu is an Indian-American inventor and semiconductor technologist, widely recognized for his pioneering contributions to memory and storage technologies. He currently serves as Principal Fellow and Vice President at Micron Technology, where he has worked since 1990. [1] [2] Sandhu is among the world’s most prolific inventors, holding over 2,211 patents worldwide and 1,432 U.S. patents as of October 2024, surpassing Thomas Edison’s record. [3] [4] [5] [6]

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Early life and education

Sandhu was born in London and raised in Amritsar, India, influenced by his parents, both chemists with doctoral degrees. He earned a Master of Science (Honours) in Physics from Guru Nanak Dev University, followed by a Master of Technology in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and later a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating in 1990. [1] [6] [2]

Technical contributions

Sandhu’s early breakthrough at Micron involved developing a titanium coating process for microchips that prevented oxygen exposure, a technique now widely adopted in memory-chip production. [7] His innovations span several key processes in semiconductor manufacturing, including Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) of high-κ films for DRAM, pitch-doubling techniques for NAND flash scaling, and CVD Ti/TiN processes still used in DRAM and NAND fabrication. [2] These advancements have enabled the continuation of Moore’s Law for memory chips and have been foundational to advanced patterning and materials integration.

Awards and recognition

Sandhu received the IEEE Andrew S. Grove Award in 2018 for outstanding contributions to solid-state devices and technology, and is a Fellow of the IEEE. [2] He has also been honored with a Distinguished Alumni Award from IIT Delhi. [6] As of 2024, he is recognized among the world’s top inventors for his extensive patent portfolio. [4]

Personal life

Sandhu resides in Boise, Idaho, and is known for his humility and mentorship of young engineers. He enjoys sports such as basketball and table tennis, and emphasizes that innovation often extends beyond patents, with many breakthroughs retained as trade secrets. [1] He is also active in philanthropy, supporting educational initiatives and contributing to thought leadership in semiconductor scaling through keynote talks and IEEE Spectrum interviews. [8] [2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Gurtej Singh Sandhu - Principal Fellow and Vice President at Micron Technology".
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "IEEE Andrew S. Grove Award".
  3. ↑ "Micron Technology Internal Patent Summary: Gurtej Singh Sandhu". Micron Technology, Inc. October 2024. Retrieved 10 October 2025. Patent data provided by Micron Technology's legal department.
  4. 1 2 "Gurtej Singh Sandhu - Patents".
  5. ↑ "USPTO Utility Patent Search for Gurtej Sandhu". Archived from the original on 14 January 2019. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 "GNDU alumnus Gurtej Sandhu 7th among world's top inventors". 2 August 2025.
  7. ↑ "Patent Making: Suddenly It Clicks". June 2008. Archived from the original on 29 May 2014.
  8. ↑ "Gurtej Singh Sandhu".


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