Interview with Kevin Parmenter

Featured Engineer

Kevin Parmenter

Kevin Parmenter - Field Applications Engineer, Exar Corporation

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

When I was a kid I used to drag old radios and TV’s home I would find in the trash and fix them or take them apart to figure out how they worked and part them out and build other things – I got my ham license and built heathkit and EICO kits and built some of my own gear and got on the air. One of our neighbors was a mentor – he worked for RCA and gave me parts and guidance loaned me test gear etc – in ham radio circles we call this an “elmer” I got a job testing and fixing electra- bearcat – and regency scanners on the production line when I was 14 a fellow ham gave me a break and he hired me – I have been working in the electronics field since then. We had things that were designed to work-last and be repaired back then – today everything seems to be disposable – what can kids learn on?

What are your favorite hardware tools that you use?

A soldering iron, CV-CC power supplies, DMM, scope, electronic load, frequency response analyzer.

What are your favorite software tools that you use?

Google, Digikey website, Power456, Excel

What is the hardest/trickiest bug you have ever fixed?

Management induced or not? Well seriously I was working on a sophisticated paging system in a hospital back in the 70s’ it was a rack full of TTL logic and all manner of boards and discretes, RF power…. It was installed in the basement boiler room of the hospital and it kept failing every week or two. I saw a huge duct and asked what was going through there – 68 degree F air year round- I asked the maintenance guys if they could rig some dryer vent hose to that duct and I cut a nice round hole in the back of the 19 inch rack cabinet (about 7 feet high) riveted on a tube to connect the vent hose to it and reversed the fans on top to pull air out of the top. The inside of the cabinet temp dropped over 50 degrees with all that cool air flow – No more problems.

What is on your bookshelf?

I am currently reading “The Green Beret in you, living with total commitment to family, career, sports and life” by John Giduck
I don’t have as many work related books around as I used to due to the web and e-readers and my wifes ongoing de-cluttering programs

Do you have any tricks up your sleeve?

I think as I get older maybe I am running out of tricks (its all about software tricks these days and I am getting to be a cranky old guy (“you kids with your software and your hula-hoops, now get off my lawn!!”) – I stick to the basics – 4 corner testing of power supplies, measuring feedback loops, I am happy to teach others what I know. I get a lot done by networking and extended resources at partner companies.

What has been your favorite project?

I have worked on some secret squirrel military stuff – when Ronald Reagan was in office – it was fun to have the proper funding to accomplish the goals and objectives. I also worked on medical instrumentation and diagnostics – it had everything – precision analog, log amps, data conversion and lots of power electronics.

Do you have any note-worthy engineering experiences?

I believe my finest accomplishments were in the hiring and leading a fantastic set of talented individuals at several companies I have worked for. Hiring great people makes it easy to achieve tremendous results because your people innovate, drive and do great things – much more than you could ever do as an individual. I am honored that they still keep in touch and that they have gone on to great leadership roles at various companies around the world. They asked my advice when they worked for me and from time to time they still call and ask my advice.

What are you currently working on?

Analog and Power circuits – digital power. I am spending a lot of time working with VLSI device part companies and SOC suppliers to power the complex devices and systems needing accuracy, sequencing, slew rate control, high resolution margining and telemetry I am also working on customer seminars and workshops around these topics.

What direction do you see your business heading in the next few years?

The semiconductor industry is maturing somewhat but still evolving, more partnerships – working together to accomplish more. The geometry reductions in process technology will change how things are done at a systems level as well as manufacturing level. I also think we will continue to see the ecology of the customer and design – chain vs supply chain get even more complex. We are going to see more M&A activity in our industry too.

What challenges do you foresee in our industry?

We have a serious deficit in leadership in our elected officials and in industry in this country- politics it seems is more important than business and technology. We need to start innovating again and not give things away to other countries to “make the quarter”– we need manufacturing. We cant be a country which sells fast food, insurance, foreign made goods and wantonly sues one another and expect prosperity. We also need to come to grips with the design chain customer ecology in our industry. I also think the recruiting and hiring process is very broken – it used to be very simple. Look at these ridiculous ATS systems companies put on their websites – it’s a waste of everybody’s time.

What’s up with all the counterfeiting?

When you give all your best technology and manufacturing to a far off land then lets see what happens wow… they steal it! Its amazing to see all these counterfeit goods but wait there’s more… its not just goods. I had a customer who shared with me that they had an FCC grant recently from their Chinese manufacturer and just to be sure they checked it’s validity. After looking up the FCC ID provided, they discovered that the grant was forged. It turns out that the customers Chinese manufacturer had taken a legitimate grant as a Acrobat PDF file from the FCC website of another company manufacturing the same type of RF product and replaced the original company information with their own. They were sending this file out to all of their prospective customers declaring FCC compliance and including the FCC logo and the other companies FCC ID number on the uncertified product! Wow Whats the ROI on that?

Also I think there is an award winning MBA paper just waiting to be written (maybe I will do it) about the complex design chain today and the reaction by companies trying to support the customers as it becomes more and more complex– global design centers, ODM’s, reference designs, 3rd party design houses, consultants…. As it becomes more complex the reaction is to try to control it more and collect more data – many supplier companies are taking exactly the wrong approach – but its fun to watch as long as you don’t have to work for them or be their customer.

Now one of life’s mysteries: why do more expensive hotel chains charge for internet?

It really irritates me that the more expensive hotel chains charge for Internet access when the inexpensive hotels in many cases owned by the same “name brand” hotels provide it for free. I travel on business a lot and I try my best to stay where its free. What is really fun is when you ask the hotel about it they give you a “technical explanation” of why its that way but you know its complete nonsense. What is really annoying is that we all know that they know the truth and they know that all of us professional travelers are irritated by it, they know we know, everybody knows– its simply our biggest annoyance and they keep on doing it. It’s like “well if you can afford to stay here then you can afford 15 bucks a day for something that costs us nothing.” We can’t rip you off for the phone stuff anymore because you brought a cell phone, what do you expect us to do?”

On the government creating job – why are they not more focused on that?

If the Government wants to grow spending and size – and based on results it does, and much of their funding comes from us the tax payers out of our wages sending a percentage to them. Now… if that’s the case then why is the government not more focused on increasing high quality employment in the country – more high paying jobs, helping people improve and get better jobs so we can send them more money? I don’t see this happening but its how they get most of their money – if 18% of the population are unemployed (and that’s a recent realistic estimate) that’s a big drop in money coming in – why is there not a Manhattan project or Apollo program focused on jobs? Could be alternative energy or smart grid or…. Pick something. And government jobs don’t count – that’s only moving money from one pants pocket to the other. I hear lip service from DC but nothing you can hang your hat on. the H1B thing is broken… can they get anything right? I don’t know. It’s pretty corrupt.