How did you get into electronics/engineering and when did you start?

Well, it is an interesting story. I started my collegiate studies in the late 1980s at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington on scholarship. As a junior in high school at Bishop Kelly in Boise, Idaho, I participated in the Junior Engineering Technical Society (JETS) program, and that certainly sparked my interest in becoming an engineer. While at Gonzaga, I originally considered mechanical or chemical engineering. I participated in core classes and an option class, “Introduction to Circuits.” There were actually two class options: one would satisfy the requirements for a mechanical engineering degree and the other was an advanced version that satisfied the requirements for an electrical engineering degree. I decided to take the advanced class thinking, “What if…?” As it turns out, I really enjoyed the class!

During my sophomore year, I had a conversation with my advisor, Dr. Dennis Kelsh, about chemical engineering. As the chemical engineering program was not in place at Gonzaga, we discussed the idea of transferring to the University of Idaho. I visited the Moscow campus that summer and quickly realized that the engineering program at Idaho was very strong.

Many of my good friends planned to participate in Gonzaga’s Florence, Italy program for their junior year. This helped with the emotional side of my decision to transfer to Idaho.

After transferring to Idaho, I had to learn a lot of math and related material in order to succeed. The timing was very good, and it was a tremendous gift to have the opportunity to study under professors Earl Gray and Calvin Finn—two of Idaho’s premier teachers in analog design. I decided to stay in Moscow, and went on to receive my Bachelor’s Degree with a specialty in analog CMOS circuit design. I interviewed and accepted a position with American Microsystems (AMI) in Pocatello, Idaho as an Automotive Project Design Engineer.

Can you tell us more about working at AMI?

It really was a tremendous opportunity, as jobs were very scarce when I graduated. In January 1991, Jerry Downey hired me, and I was surrounded by some of the best Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) designers in the world. This design team gave me my first opportunity to work in mixed signal design.

A project engineer had primary responsibility for every aspect of a development: design, bond diagrams, specifications, test programs, and everything in between. While involved with many challenging and interesting projects at AMI, I was initially associated with the device that, at that time, was arguably the highest-volume Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) in the world; this was before cell phone Integrated Circuits (IC). This was called the PRNDL, which stands for Park Reverse Neutral Drive Low. The PRNDL is responsible for indicating the gear that a driver selects for the vehicle (usually via an LED). That IC went into almost every General Motors (GM) car made in the 1990s. Many might think that it is a simple device, but one thing about building a chip in the automotive industry is that it has to be at least 99 percent fault graded. This means that any internal fault needs to cause something at the pin level of the device to change. Since the only measurable interface on an IC is at its pins, the silicon and the test programs must work together to fully exercise the device to pass any potential flaws out to where they can be seen so that a bad part can be rejected. I am still very proud of this development; the test program and silicon modifications that I helped define with the team allowed this part to be tested much more efficiently.

Automotive devices need to meet tough environmental specifications like temperature and electrostatic discharge (ESD). While we were designing chips for GM, we spent a lot of time doing analysis on crystal oscillators and ceramic resonators. One of the big challenges is getting a circuit like that to work over a -55°C to 125°C environment. This is no small task, but we found ways to do just that. A lot of time was also spent developing some of the first high-voltage ESD tolerant circuits using punchthru devices and parasitic bipolar transistors. Jerry, Bob Klosterboer, and I spent a lot of time trying different structures on different test chips. One of our chips passed 4KV on every pin, and this was back at a time when this was very hard to do.

My most memorable design was the first octal CMOS integrated smart carburetor driver for natural gas powered vehicles. Motorola had built individual bipolar drivers, but AMI’s Canadian customer wanted a single chip. This was a tremendous challenge. The simulation models that needed to be developed were cutting-edge. Saber Cadat was in its genesis. We used every Mentor tool we had: HSPICE, BSIM modeling, Cadence, and Synopsis.

I was most proud when the seven state-variable, dual-feedback mixed signal circuit that I designed via Karnaugh maps successfully drove the TMOS IV power FETs in 60 nanoseconds while critically damped! The model of a low side solenoid driver with flyback control is still, in my opinion, one of the most encompassing electrical engineering challenges in the analog domain.

Where did you go after AMI?

In 1995, after four years in Pocatello, I was offered a position to replace one of my mentors, Art Tan, at the AMI representative office in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Having been a part of the teams that built a lot of the chips that were being integrated into vehicle systems at Delco and GM, I moved to Fort Wayne—the halfway point between Kokomo, Indiana and Flint, Michigan—the two main design locations for Delco Electronics. My stay was a little over a year as the Field Applications Engineer for the North Central Territory. During the summer of 1996, while celebrating with my grandparents for their 60th wedding anniversary on the Oregon coast, I noticed an ad in the Oregonian for semiconductor sales for the Pacific Northwest. I interviewed and accepted a position with Allegro Microsystems and moved back to Boise in late 1996 having various responsibilities in applications, marketing, distribution, and sales—a little bit of everything.

When did you start with Analog Devices?

On May 3, 1999, I went to work for Analog Devices. I remained in Boise for about ten months before moving to Seattle, Washington where I worked out of our Bellevue office for seven years.

I was ADI’s first Linear Field Applications Engineer specifically assigned to the Northwest, transitioning later into a role as a communications engineer for the western U.S. My focus was Analog Devices’ GSM and EDGE radios and baseband devices before that part of the business was sold. After that business transaction, I became an RF specialist for the Americas, being involved with communication system design at many levels.

As that happened, I had an opportunity to get involved in a specific area of RF as a result of work being done at some key customers who were adding communications capability to the electric, gas, and water metering infrastructure; the meter sometimes being referred to as a smart meter. One customer requested that I get much more involved with the key radio standards for this application space, namely 802.15.4g. My current role is RF and Systems Specialist for the Energy Segment within Analog Devices’ Industrial and Instrumentation division.

What percentage of the nation has converted over to Smart Meters?

It is evolving. There are three phases that companies are working on right now. There is Automatic Meter Reading (AMR), Automatic Meter Infrastructure (AMI), and then the Smart Grid.

The AMI is more of a tactical application of adding two-way communication and some features to the structure of AMR, which is often a system of one-way communication to replace a meter reader. A main objective of AMR was to keep the technician from having to go out and read the meters on your house.

A primary objective of AMI is bidirectional communication allowing the utility to query and control the meter. The Smart Grid is really looking forward to the future to create a network that provides secure and robust means of measurement and control. The application possibilities for the Smart Grid are extensive, ranging beyond the simple task of

In order to be highly successful in analog you really have to have a rich history in cell development and maintain high team morale because a lot of what you are doing is based off of knowledge gathering metrology information to saving lives. Japanese meter manufacturers, for example, have considered adding seismic measurement to a gas meter so in the case of a seismic event, the valve can be closed and possibly prevent a natural gas explosion.

Another concept where the Smart Grid is likely to contribute is what some have called the Internet of Things (IOT): devices that range from vending machines to coffee pots in your home, connected into this dedicated grid-based network.

Analog Devices is considered a world leader in metrology—the meter side of things—and RF. Some of my recent work is as a contributing member of 802.15.4g that meets every other month all over the world, defining the physical layer communications specifications for these Smart Grid applications. We are working diligently on the 4g standard because many believe that will represent a major part of the overall market.

Where do you want to go from here?

There will be career opportunities to “move up the ladder.” Right now though, the Smart Grid is, I believe, one of the most exciting areas in electronics and my team is right in the middle of it with global industry connections. I have been able to travel to many places because of these opportunities, visiting customers, learning from them, and engaging in successful business. The Smart Grid is a global objective; it will change the world. It is really exciting to imagine what it will do for countries like India, Brazil, China, and Japan, and how vital it could be for Europe. There are a whole lot of creative and valuable things you can do with the Smart Grid once the key building blocks are in place.

Do you see the analog IC industry changing?

In order to be highly successful in analog you really have to have a rich history in cell development and maintain high team morale because a lot of what you are doing is based off of knowledge. Analog Devices has been able to keep a great majority of the talent that it has harvested. It amazes me every month when I read the company website to see the number of personnel celebrating a 25th, 30th, or 35th anniversary. A lot of the reason Analog Devices is so successful is because of the people in its history that have designed the key intellectual property (IP) blocks that are shared with the new generation of engineers. Many of these designs are improved and managed to a new process or structure to further enhance and enable analog technology.

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are another key technology area, possibly best categorized as analog. We are in the very early days of understanding all of the possibilities that this technology will bring to the world.

As digital gets better, faster, stronger, and more powerful, the requirement for the analog becomes more challenging. It gives you a chance to dig down and look at topics that were previously put on the back burner. Engineers really get a chance to operate “outside the box” looking at solutions. One of the certainties of the semiconductor industry is cyclicity. There have been groundbreaking discoveries and ideas in the past that have set the next cycle. Gordon Moore, for example, threw down the gauntlet with “Moore’s Law” awhile back that still appears to hold. Breakthroughs will continue, I believe, mainly due to how effectively new-generation engineers can be educated through the previous efforts (successes and failures) of their mentors.

What are some of the papers you have written?

Following is a list of articles I have written or contributed to. They can be accessed at the URLs that accompany each title.

• The Smart Grid Communications Evolution: “Closing the Loop” for the Intelligent Electric Grid http://www.mwjournal.com/article.asp?HH_ID=AR_10003
• Small Circuit Forms Programmable 4- to 20-mA Transmitter http://www.edn.com/article/480893-Small_circuit_forms_programmable_4_to_20_mA_transmitter.php
• Encoder’s Spare Channel Embeds Whole-House Stereo Audio in Satellite Set-Top-Box Designs Stably and Cost-Effectively http://www.analog.com/library/analogDialogue/archives/39-07/btsc.html
• Interfacing the ADSP-BF535 Blackfin® Processor to High-Speed Converters (like those on the AD9860/2) Over the External Memory Bus http://www.analog.com/static/imported-files/application_ notes/3EE162.pdf
• Stability and Transient Analysis of the Miller-Compensated Linear Regulators on the ADP3178 http://www.analog.com/static/ imported-files/application_ notes/142101805AN593.pdf
• Interfacing the ADSP-BF533/ADSP-BF561 Blackfin® Processors to High Speed Parallel ADCs http://www.analog.com/static/ imported-files/application_ notes/527407802AN813_0.pdf.