Soctera wins $250,000 AFRL Accelerating Translation Award
Meet the Soctera
Power Amplifier
Through innovative optimization of nitride semiconductors, Soctera is developing a power amplifier that, for a given power density, operates at lower temperatures and greater efficiency than traditional gallium nitride PAs.
These performance advantages will enable the next generation of wireless communication at millimeter-wave frequencies.



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Applications
Defense

Next-generation communication performance of radar and SATCOM for improved security
Telecommunications

Enhancing 5G and beyond via unprecedented power and efficiency.
About
Born at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University, Soctera is bringing its aluminum nitride (AlN) technology to market to enable tomorrow’s communication systems.
Beyond just power amplifiers, AlN allows for the monolithic integration of electronic filters, high-current complementary devices for computational logic, and waveguides—a unique feature of this incredible material.
Soctera is located in Ithaca, New York.
Our Team

Dr. Austin Hickman
Co-Founder and CEO
As CEO of Soctera, Austin handles all aspects of the company operations. He graduated with his Ph.D. from Cornell University in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2021, and his bachelor's from the University of Notre Dame in Electrical Engineering in 2016. Austin is a 2022 Activate Anywhere Fellow.

Shankar Miller-Murthy
RF Device Engineer
Shankar leads device fabrication and characterization efforts at Soctera. He graduated from the University of Kentucky with his master's in Material Science in 2022 and his bachelor's in Electrical Engineering in 2020.

Prof. Debdeep Jena
Co-Founder and Advisor
Debdeep Jena is the David E. Burr Professor of Engineering at Cornell University where he holds a joint appointment in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Debdeep serves as a technical advisor to Soctera.

Robert Scharf
Advisor
Bob Scharf was appointed as the first Director of the Praxis Center for Venture Development in Engineering and the Physical Sciences at Cornell University in 2018. Bob came to this role with a long track record of building and launching new products and new ventures as a Director of Marketing at Thomas & Betts, Executive Vice President of Stratos Lightwave; and Chief Executive Officer of Protokraft. Bob brings field specific experience in Automotive, Aerospace, Computer, Telecommunications and Medical hardware development projects.

Prof. Grace Xing
Co-Founder and Advisor
Huili (Grace) Xing is the William L. Quackenbush Professor of Engineering at Cornell University where she holds a joint appointment in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Grace serves as a technical advisor to Soctera.

Dr. Bruce Fishbein
Advisor
Bruce Fishbein spent over thirty years in the semiconductor industry as an engineering manager and executive overseeing all aspects of product development, including device physics R&D, manufacturing process development, and product design for systems on a chip (SoCs) for consumer products, enterprise / industrial controllers, and data center processors and switches. He has led technical teams of hundreds of people across multiple geographies at a diverse set of companies including Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, Marvell, Cavium, and most recently the startup Innovium, where he was Chief Product Development officer through the company’s acquisition by Marvell.