Responsible for maintaining and development of all current and new RF products. In this position, I have evolved out of simply doing hardware design to now being the designer of the embedded code that runs the physical layer (PHY) operation of our radios. Also deeply involved with compliance management, design and testing to RTCA, ICAO and ARINC specifications.

Redesigning an existing avionics radio intended for VDL Mode 2 Communications.

Consulted for Carbon Design Group, an engineering services company.Designed a prototype low-cost location and direction-finding system for the consumer market, with a range capability up to 1 mile. Designed around a 2.4GHz ISM-band CC2510 radio and 8510 MCU. Utilized compact directional antenna with RF front-end electronics, and a simple user interface.

Consulted for CARDIOMETRIX INC., a medical device R&D company.Prototyped and tested an ultrasound driver for a medical implant and low-noise analog receiver which together are used for measuring cardiac output and transmitting wireless telemetry to external monitor. A challenging implementation of high gain-bandwidth amplifiers at 10MHz, envelope detection, and magnetic antennas.

Concept design of hand-held wireless locator (range and direction-finding)

Designed technology demonstrator for wireless implant to monitor cardiac performance

Part-project manager, systems and RF engineer of a $1M effort to design a hand-held test meter for installers of high-speed data and cable TV service. This meter was designed for test and analysis of analog plus 64- and 256-QAM cable plants. Efforts included integration of embedded Linux OS running on an ARM9, re-engineering an OEM broadband cable tuner/modem, board-level RF measurement circuitry, responsibility for the industrial and mechanical design, design of user interface software and display, measurement algorithms, implementation of 10/100T, SPI, USB and UART interfaces, and power management. This was a concept-to-production effort. Personally responsible for managing the first phase of the project, interacting with the customer, writing the product specification, setting up all RF design resources, and the board-level RF circuitry.

Supported multiple sales forces across five western states in meeting clients, assessing the technical needs and applying products from Avnet’s line card to their design efforts. A lot of customer interaction. I used my design experience to learning about and applying products and technologies from a broad spectrum of different suppliers. I enjoyed interacting with and helping customers, but ultimately missed taking part in design.

Designed a dual-band GSM base station radio for RFN’s converged wireless system. Successfully applied the European Telecommunications Standards Institute specifications to RFN’s very compact RadioBlade™ form factor, while providing a robust design that operates co-located with iDen and 802.11B radios. Works with either European (GSM900, DCS1800) or North American (GSM850, PCS1900) bands. Incorporated ICT, and Boundary Scan features to provide 90% test coverage. Worked with Layer1 and digital designers to include a DSP and FPGA as part of the finished product. The radio was fully functional and ready to support system integration and debug on the first design iteration. The particulars: this board implements a direct-conversion architecture for the transmitter, and a traditional heterodyne receiver, with a DSP for handling Layer1 functions and an FPGA for interfacing Ethernet command and control, on a 12-layer, controlled impedance PCB.

Designed a 1.8GHz transceiver for an OFDM wireless data platform. Defined requirements and specifications. Performed all signal budget analyses. Identified and sourced all long lead parts. Designed schematic and PCBA. Debugged and optimized prototype boards. Conducted successful pilot production run with contract manufacturer.

Lead systems architect and circuit board designer of a 900 MHz CDMA base station front end designed for adaptive antenna array capabilities. Designed the Transmit path hardware. Defined the functional and embedded software requirements. Performed system integration and test. Notable accomplishments: (1) first-pass success of a mixed RF/digital PCBA, with >2000 components and a 14–layer PCB; (2) definition and oversite of the custom-designed SAW delay line by a sole-source vendor, (3) implementation of a GUI-based console to dramatically ease engineering and manufacturing tests, (4) patent application for a low-power, low cost, high-linearity phase shifter design. This product was sold worldwide.

Technical management of the development and design of the APG-63 and APG-70 fire-control radar systems used on the F-15 Eagle