Steven Crane, PhD, P.E.

Dr. Steven Crane is a Staff Engineer at Accident Reconstruction Analysis. His areas of expertise include consumer product design, product liability, lithium-ion batteries, high power circuit design, low voltage circuit analysis, reliability engineering analysis, and electronic circuit and component design.

Dr. Crane is also knowledgeable in manufacturing operations optimization across a variety of electronic systems, including FMEA, 8D, Gage R&R, Design of Experiments, DMAIC, Continuous Improvement, Yield Bridge Analysis, Reliability Qualification, Extended Quality Testing, Highly Accelerated Stress Testing, and Ongoing Reliability Testing techniques. He has a strong background in semiconductors, electrical characterization, and nanotechnology, in addition to extensive knowledge of general materials science including ceramics, metals, polymers, and glasses.

Prior to joining ARA, Dr. Crane served in roles for several leading companies in the technology industry. At Tesla, he was responsible for reliability and failure analysis across Vehicle and Energy Engineering, leading investigations across battery, DC/DC and AC/DC power transformers, electric drive units, vehicle suspension, low voltage, and lighting systems. During his time at Apple, Dr. Crane was responsible for failure analysis across all iPhone product lines, from iPhone 5 to iPhone X, and all engineering systems including Li-ion battery, main logic board, SOC, display, camera, audio, enclosure, and sensors. Many of his deliverables required deep collaboration with engineers from design and manufacturing engineering, working cross-functionally to translate root cause findings into corrective actions that were measurable in manufacturing. Prior to his industrial experience, Dr. Crane served as a Managing Engineer at Exponent, focusing on consumer electronics, medical devices, and electrical fire cause and origin investigations.

He completed his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focused on the synthesis and electrical characterization of oxide thin films, specifically investigating the interplay between electric polarization and magnetization in nano-structured composite materials, which required expertise in ionic diffusion and non-equilibrium thermodynamics. In this work, Dr. Crane also developed experience in scanning probe microscopy, resonance spectroscopy, single-crystal x-ray diffraction, and ion beam processing.

Credentials

• North Carolina Professional Engineer
• Florida Professional Engineer
• California Professional Engineer
• Certified Fire and Explosion Investigator, National Association of Fire Investigators