Michael Nicholson Email & Phone Number

Lincoln, England, United Kingdom

In my role as Senior R&D Engineer, I am responsible for technical leadership of GaN power module product development.Presently, my responsibilities and activities include:➣ Technical lead for the design of new, innovative products and technologies that utilize GaN HEMTs.➣ Collaboration with process and test engineering to design and implement manufacturing processes for new products.➣ Project planning and coordination of tasks amongst a multi-disciplinary team of engineers and technicians.➣ Review of technical literature and published patents to navigate potential intellectual property conflicts.➣ Protection of own intellectual property through patenting novel technologies and publication of designs in literature.➣ Research and interpretation of customer and application needs, translating into product requirement specifications.➣ Collaboration with Dynex’s parent organisation, CRRC, in China.➣ Performance of parasitic inductance and resistance simulations using ANSYS Q3D, and electromagnetic field simulations using ANSYS Maxwell 2D.➣ Performance of electrical double-pulse test simulations using LTspice.➣ Use of Solid Edge CAD software to create 3D parts and assemblies, and 2D drawings to BS 8888.➣ Use of Altium Designer to design and produce PCB layouts for both rigid and flexible PCBs up to 4 layers.

Lincoln, England, United Kingdom

In my role as R&D Engineer, I was responsible for CAD design and high voltage testing of new products. My achievements and responsibilities included:➣ Use of Solid Edge CAD software to create 3D parts and assemblies, and 2D drawings to BS 8888.➣ Use of Altium Designer to design and produce rigid PCB layouts, up to 4 layers.➣ Use of Silvaco Expert to produce photomask layouts according to design specifications provided by the IGBT chip development team - also developed sophisticated layouts automated through scripting (Javascript) for the bipolar development team.➣ Contributions to the invention of a novel multi-chip pressure contact package design, for which I am a named inventor on multiple patent applications.➣ Co-authorship of papers and marketing literature.➣ Collaboration with Dynex’s parent organisation, CRRC, in China, including transfer of production ready designs to enable manufacturing in CRRC’s facilities.➣ Regular communication with all levels of the organisation.➣ Setting up of piece parts on the company’s ERP system, and liaising with process engineering to set up manufacturing processes for the press-pack IGBT.➣ Overseeing the electrical testing of press-pack IGBT basic units, and carrying out high voltage static and dynamic testing on press-pack IGBT devices for characterisation and qualification.➣ Carrying out failure analysis on devices and basic units, determining the root causes of failures to help improve future designs.➣ Writing operator and engineering instructions for electrical testing, and reporting test results to the development team.➣ Carrying out Risk and CoSHH assessments for high voltage electrical testing of press-pack IGBTs.

Lincoln, England, United Kingdom

In my role as Senior Engineering Technician, I was responsible for process development and continuous improvement in the IGBT Assembly & Test department.My achievements and responsibilities included:➣ Maintaining existing processes on the IGBT production line to achieve a high throughput and yield.➣ Identifying and implementing process improvements.➣ Development and continuous improvement of solder reflow processes.➣ Programming of dispensing robots, utilising updated features on newer robotic dispensers to improve dispensing processes.➣ Writing and maintaining operator and engineering instructions.➣ Producing engineering drawings.➣ Writing technical reports.

Higher National Diploma, Electrical And Electronics Engineering

Bachelor Of Arts - Ba, Television And Film Design, Lower Second Class Honours