Stephen C. Pyke

P.O. Box 1257

Sisters, OR 97759

T 541-390-9572

stevepyke@direcway.com

 

I am the Principal Member Fluence LLC an Oregon sensor research and development company.  My professional career has been largely in materials research and sensor development for gas and chemical detection and monitoring beginning with work for Standard Oil Research (now part of BP-Amoco) and continuing at the Boeing High Technology Center, Micromonitors and Fluence.  Prior to founding Fluence, I co-founded and was Chief Technology Officer at Micromonitors, Inc. (now Serveron- www.serveron.com located in Portland, OR).  Micromonitors was supported by contracts from the Electric Power Research Institute to develop monitoring technology for fault detection in large electric power transformers.  Under my technical direction, Micromonitors grew from a research and development company to a privately held service company with electric utility customers worldwide.  While building Micromonitors, I was responsible for R&D, product development, manufacturing and technical sales.  I left Micromonitors to found Fluence to concentrate exclusively on R&D with a product and market in mind.

Through Fluence, I was able to exploit a virtual business model, based on a geographically diverse yet willing and able network of technical and business partners, for new technology product development.  I have found this to be a robust model enabling R&D and product development for a lower overall investment than would be required for an integrated manufacturing company.  The pace is slower, but the lower cost supports technology solutions for “niche” markets.  Niche markets are typically small opportunities below the radar for investment capital.  Nonetheless, many niche markets have a critical need for new technology that could be satisfied using this business model.  One of these niche markets is the sensor market.  Only a few of the many needs for sensors promise the revenue opportunity to justify even a small venture capital investment.

At Fluence, I have developed and licensed sensor technology for consumer applications, fuel cells and automotive exhaust gas analysis.  The US Department of Energy has supported the work in fuel cells.  For reports on this work, go to: http://www.eere.energy.gov and search using my last name.

Professional Experience

Founder and Principal
May, 1997 - Present

Peterson Ridge LLC (dba Fluence), Bend, OR

 

Founder and VP Chief Technology Officer

January, 1991 - April, 1997

Serveron Inc, Hillsboro, OR

 

Director of Sensor Research

March, 1990 – May, 1990

Bend Research Inc, Bend, OR

 

Research Scientist

January, 1987 - March, 1990

Boeing High Technology Center, Bellevue, WA

 

Project Leader

September, 1980 - December, 1986

Standard Oil Company, Research Center, Warrensville, Ohio

 

Research Associate

June, 1979 - June, 1980

Department of Physics, Washington State University, Pullman, WA

Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, Stanford, CA

 

Research Associate

January, 1977 - June, 1979

Department of Chemical Physics, Washington State University, Pullman, WA

Education

BA              Chemistry                              1970        University of California, San Diego

PhD            Inorganic Chemistry            1979        Wayne State University

Dissertation Title

Studies of Excited State Decay in Complexes of Chromium(III)

Patents

“Gas Sensing Device and Method for Monitoring Complex Gas Mixtures at High Temperatures”, S.C. Pyke, US Patent Application 09/820,037, March 29, 2000.

“Detection of Fluids with MIS Sensors”, S.C. Pyke, US Patent 5,591,321, Jan 7, 1997.

“Detection of Fluids with MIS Sensors”, S.C. Pyke, US Patent 5,417,821, May 23, 1995.

“Device and Method for Detection of Fluid Concentration Utilizing Charge Storage in an MIS Diode”, S.C. Pyke, US Patent No. 4,947,104, August 7, 1990.

“Apparatus and Method for Early Detection and Identification of Dilute Chemical Vapors”, S.C. Pyke and H.E. Hager, US Patent No. 4,895,017, January 23, 1990.

“Lightweight, Compact Detector of Sudden Changes in Concentration of a Gas”, S.C. Pyke, D.L. Boos and M.T. McMahon, US Patent No. 4,761,639, August 2, 1988.

"Method of Forming Suspended Gate Chemically Sensitive Field Effect Transistor", S.C. Pyke, US Patent No. 4,671,852, June 9, 1987.

“Photocorrosion Resistant Semiconductor Photoelectrodes”, S.C. Pyke and M.R. Bruce, US Patent No. 4,574,039, March 4, 1986.

Selected Publications and Presentations

“Resolution of Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide on Metal Gate GaN MODFET Sensors”, S.C. Pyke and L.P. Sadwick, 2^nd IEEE International Conference on Sensors, Toronto, Canada, October 21-24, 2003, Paper no. 37.4.

“Gallium Nitride Integrated Ga/Temperature Sensors for Fuel Cell System Monitoring for Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide”, S.C. Pyke and L.P. Sadwick, Proceedings of the 2003 Hydrogen Program Review, http://www.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/hydrogen/pdfs/93_peterson_ridge_steve_pyke.pdf, Berkeley, California, May 2003, Paper no. 93.

“Gallium Nitride Integrated Ga/Temperature Sensors for Fuel Cell System Monitoring for Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide”, S.C. Pyke and L.P. Sadwick, Proceedings of the 2002 US DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NREL/CP-610-32405, Golden, Colorado, May 2002.

“Gallium Nitride Integrated Ga/Temperature Sensors for Fuel Cell System Monitoring for Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide”, S.C. Pyke and L.P. Sadwick, Proceedings of the 2001 US DOE Hydrogen Program Review, NREL/CP-570-30535, Baltimore, Maryland, May 2001.

“Gallium Nitride Integrated Ga/Temperature Sensors for Fuel Cell System Monitoring for Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide”, S.C. Pyke, J-H Chern, R.J. Hwu and L.P. Sadwick, Proceedings of the 2000 Hydrogen Program Review, NREL/CP-570-28890, San Ramon, California, May 2000.

“Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor (MIS) Gas Sensor Array for Gas Analysis and Diagnosing Faults in Oil-Filled Power Transformers”, D.I. Feinstein, C. Renn, M. Scharff and S.C. Pyke, 191^st Meeting of the Electrochemical Society, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, May 4-9, 1997.

 “On-Line Transformer Load, Fault Gas, and Moisture Analyzer for Determination of Reliable Overload Capacity”, S.R. Lindgren, S.C. Pyke and M.A. Reynolds, Proceedings of the 1996 CIGRÉ Conference, Paris France, August, 1996, Paper no. 12-110.

 “Charge-Transfer Perturbations of the Electronic Contributions to Binuclear Reactions: Nonadiabatic Effects Observed in Energy-Transfer and Electron-Transfer Reactions”, J.F. Endicott, T. Ramasami, D.C. Gaswick, R. Tamilarasan, M.J. Heeg, G.R. Brubaker and S.C. Pyke, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 10, 5301 (1983)

“Bimolecular Excited-State Quenching Reactions as Probes of Outer-Sphere Donor-Acceptor Electronic Interactions Between Transition-Metal Complexes”, J.F. Endicott, M.J. Hegg, D.C. Gaswick and S.C. Pyke, J. Phys. Chem., 85, 1777 (1981).

“Chemical Measurements in the Picosecond and Shorter Time Range”, S.C. Pyke and M.W. Windsor in B.W. Rossiter (ed), Techniques in Chemistry, Vol. IX, Wiley Interscience, New York, 1980.

“EXAFS Studies of Chromium Complexes: Ground State Structure and Progress in Measuring Excited State Structure”, S.C. Pyke and D.R. Sandstrom, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory Users Group Meeting, October, 1980.

“Time Resolved Measurements of X-Ray Absorption”, S.C. Pyke and D.R. Sandstrom, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory Users Group Meeting, October, 1979.

“Picosecond Studies of Excited State Decay Kinetics in Chromium(III): trans-Diisothiocyanatobis(ethylenediamine)chromium(III), Reineckes Salt, and Hexathiocyanatochromium(III) in H₂0 and D₂0 at Room Temperature”, S.C. Pyke and M.W. Windsor, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 100, 6518, (1978).

“Environmental Effects in the Decay of Doublet Excited States of Thiocyanate Complexes of Chromium(III)”, S.C. Pyke and J.F. Endicott, J. Phys. Chem., 82, 302 (1978).

“Sequential Two Photon Photoredox Chemistry of Transition Metal Compounds: Non Linear Intensity Effects in the Photochemistry of the Reineckate Ion”, S.C. Pyke and J.F. Endicott, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 99, 4824 (1977).

“Importance of Sigma Bonding Effects in the Photolysis of trans-Difluorobis(ethylenediamine)chromium(III)”, S.C. Pyke and R.G. Linck, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 93, 5281 (1971).

“The Rate of Aquation of trans-Difluorobis(ethylenediamine)chromium(III) Through an Isolable Monodentate Ethylenediamine Complex”, S.C. Pyke and R.G. Linck, Inorg. Chem., 10, 2445 (1971).

Public and Professional service

Charter member, Younger Chemists Committee, American Chemical Society, 1974-1979.

 

Member, Central Oregon Regional Advisory Board convened by the State Board of Higher Education and the Oregon University System to recommend the form of a degree granting university in Central Oregon, 1999-2001.

 

Taught Entrepreneurship at Sisters High School, Spring 1999.

 

Volunteer Firefighter, Cloverdale Rural Fire Protection District.