SUMMARY

Many years specialising in new product designs, development, product enhancements, manufacture and test of high technology products for the industrial, consumer and space markets.

Electronics

Mostly analogue from d.c. to 100MHz. Simulation, design and manufacture.

Electro-Optics

Visible & Infra-Red

Space Industry Experience

Design Tools

LabView, MatLab, MathCad, OrCad Pspice, Protel PCB layout

Qualifications

BSc (Hons) 2ii Electronic Engineering

OERLIKON SPACE (formerly Contraves) AG, Zurich  (Contract Position)
01/2006 to 10/2007   3 renewals

Electronics Task Manager

Responsible for the system and component level design of the electronics for a Laser Modulator system to be used onboard ESA’s LISA Pathfinder mission.

Task Manager for a team of electronic, mechanical, thermal and test engineers, in a Matrix organisation, tasked with taking the pre PDR design concept through to CDR and EM/FM model manufacture.

Also provided significant technical input into the design of the electro-optical module, involving acousto-optic modulators, piezo-controlled triple prism actuators for optical phase control, bulk optics and fibre couplers/collimators.

Electronics involved:-

·      Low phase noise dual PLL synthesiser providing two very clean tracking RF outputs only 1KHz apart, with spurious cross-coupling below 100dBc and phase noise below 120dBc/Hz at 500Hz offset. Included custom designed VCXO’s, both ring diode and multiplier mixers, phase frequency detectors, high order loop filters and novel loop lock acquisition circuitry.

·      Very low noise analogue feedback control loops for controlling Acousto-optic Modulators used to set and stabilise the laser intensity. The AOM’s present significant delay in the control loop, requiring carefully designed loop filters to achieve the control bandwidth.

·      Voltage controlled RF power amplifiers with high control bandwidth for low phase delay.

·      Variable high voltage, low noise power supply for driving piezo controlled optical phase actuators.

·      FPGA(Actel) based command and telemetry communication interface.

Responsible for:-

·      Prime point of contact with customer for electronic issues.

·      Overall electronic system design, including creating design justification file. Simulation of circuitry to confirm required performance with MatLab, Orcad Pspice and Serenade.

·      Generating System & Component Requirement Specifications derived from customer requirements. Negotiating and agreeing specification changes.

·      Component procurement, and space qualification, where necessary.

·      Overseeing mechanical and thermal design of housing, ensuring compliance with mass and power dissipation budgets.

·      Developing and measuring the performance of breadboard circuitry and integrating into the overall optical system prototype model.

·      Multilayer PCB layout, including EMC/RFI design using polyimide flexi-rigid construction.

·      Supplier and sub-contractor shadowing, including the development of custom components, such as VCXO hybrids.

·      Radiation Analysis (TID, SSE, SEL, SET etc.)

·      Worst case analysis, Parts Stress & Derating Analysis and FMECA

·      Test plans and procedures for board and system verification. Specification of EGSE and developing test methodologies for testing Optical Spectral Purity, Optical Phase Noise, Optical Phase Adjustment Verification and Control Loop Noise Rejection.

·      Generating CDR data package and presentation to ESA. Answering RIDs to customer satisfaction.

TRAVEL & MULTIMEDIA PORTFOLIO, Ceredigion Wales

Co Founder & Director    10/99 to 12/05

Small company set up to provide multimedia promotional material specifically for specialist travel companies. A niche market requiring novel, low cost products and fast turnaround.

·     General running of a small company involved in database driven web design and DVD based multimedia presentations for both UK and international travel companies and government organisations.

·     Marketing, preparation of quotations, design and coding of web sites, still and video image editing and digital compression, DVD mastering.

CONTRAVES SPACE AG, Zurich  (Contract Position)

10/02 to 11/02, 02/03 to 03/03 and  07/03 to 08/03

Consultant

Provided technical assistance in developing a 155Mbit/Sec Optical Harness Subsystem for use in ESA’s SMOS mission.

• Helped secure the detailed design and manufacturing phase (C/D) of the project by preparing the MAIT (Manufacturing, Assembly, Integration & Test) section of the technical proposal including detailed timescale and cost breakdowns and risk reduction strategies. This required managing the input from both internal team members and external test houses and presenting the plan as part of the bid team.
• Developed the subsystem qualification philosophy, the component qualification strategy & plan, and the proposed test methods and procedures for obtaining component and subsystem space qualification.
• Provided a critique of the proposed resource allocation and timescale planning proving that much more resource was required to meet the required delivery date.

CONTRAVES SPACE AG, Zurich  (Contract Position)

09/01 to 07/02  2 renewals

Consultant

A short-term contract to help develop semiconductor laser pumps for use in Nd:YAG ring lasers and Yb doped optical fibre amplifiers for use in Optical Communication Terminals. Also to determine the suitability of these solid-state lasers to a wide range of different space missions. Part of ESA’s Core Laser Technology Project.

• Analysed design concepts, determined the critical components and investigated the market place to establish whether current technology could provide suitable components. Nd:YAG laser used free beam 980nm open facet laser diodes as the pump source in a triple cold redundancy setup. Fibre amplifier used novel DILAS laser .
•  Predicted that the existing designs were unlikely to meet the stringent reliability and lifetime specifications required, due to the reliability of the semiconductor laser diodes commercially available. Obtained senior management and ESTEC agreement to undertake accelerated lifetime testing to confirm prediction.
• Proposed and gained ESTEC approval for the component test strategies, system test plans and acceptance test procedures for the space qualification of both components and sub-systems. This involved vibration, shock, thermal and both Proton and Gamma radiation.
• Designed and constructed in-house facilities for accelerated lifetime testing of open facet diode lasers in vacuum, within class 100 clean room conditions. This involved computer controlled high current power supplies for the lasers, thermal and vacuum control electronics, use of optical fibres and remote data processing of measured results.
• Predicted the radiation spectrum, energy levels and likely dose rates that the optical terminals would experience in various earth orbits, mostly using the ESTEC Spenvis models, but also incorporating some TRIM analysis. Determined the expected penetration depths, based on a sectoral analysis of the spacecraft. Proved that the critical components were adequately shielded and that the proposed qualification test levels could be greatly reduced, thereby significantly reducing test time and cost. Drafted detailed test plans and procedures and gained ESTEC approval for their implementation. Designed and manufactured suitable test jigs and instrumentation.
• Presented the project conclusions at both preliminary and critical design reviews.

VECTOR TECHNOLOGY LTD, Abertillery Wales

Non Exec Director             10/99 to 07/00
Operations Director          02/93 to 10/99

Technical Director            02/91 to 02/93    

Responsibilities – Technical Director

• Led a multi disciplined team that designed a range of low powered laser devices and optical sensor electronics, sold world wide through distributors and catalogues such as RS Components, for use in all major industries including machine vision, medical, process control, entertainment, communication and security. This included detailed electronic design of analogue laser driver circuitry, servo control loops, high speed photo-detector circuitry, synchronous detectors, CCD cameras and RF (100MHz) video circuitry. Control software (mostly Visual Basic, Visual C++, LabView) and firmware.
• Managed a general consulting service for customer's applications needs, offering everything from turnkey systems to custom module design.

Responsibilities – Operations Director

• Operational responsibility for all production, purchasing, QA, health & safety and employee matters. Ensuring the efficient use of resources to meet business growth targets and providing input into planning the strategy for expanding the business and developing new markets.
• Lead responsibility for contractual negotiations and customer liaison for major projects and for managing projects where the value of the contract was a significant proportion of turnover.
• Managed a multi million pound project to design and manufacture the world’s first commercial, laser based, platform to moving train CCTV system for the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway. I acted as the company’s technical design authority for both the UK prime contractor and the end customer in Hong Kong, providing weekly project updates, risk analyses and manufacturing schedules. Also undertook the system design and oversaw the detailed electronic, optical and thermo/mechanical design.
• Helped develop and patent a novel optical design for the laser transmitters utilising diffractive holographic lenses. This allowed us to overcome eye safety power limitations and incorporate optical AGC across the projected beam. This unusual solution was nominated for an innovation award.

VISTA GAUGES LIMITED          Director                02/90 to 02/91

TEAM CONSULTING LTD             Consultant            02/89 to 02/90   

COHERENT LINEAR LTD          Director                1984 to 1989

STC LTD                                           Section Head       1980 to 1984