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Business/Management:
·
I have been responsible
for management of groups and projects, directing,
supervising, coordinating, hiring, performance reviews.
I have also served as principled and lead engineer on many
of these projects. I have also managed and ran my own
engineering consulting and design companies that have also
developed, marketed and sold electronic hardware and
software products. Also many of these project involved
project management, proposals, quotes and preliminary system
design.
·
I support all of the products my company sells.
This involves troubleshooting and investigating
technical issues that appear and need to be solved.
Patience and educating customers on installation and
operating system is also part of the responsibilities of
product support. I also develop software application
examples based on feedback and frequently asked questions.
Bio-Medical:
·
Designed controls and
software for a bench top automated robotic nanodispenser
that performs the transfer of DNA samples onto
SpectroCHIP.
Then these SpectroCHIPs
are transferred into MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry with robust
molecular biology and advanced data analysis software. This
device is now a commercial product called the
MassARRAY Nanodispenser RS1000. This design
involved developing friendly GUI for a flat panel touch
screen on machine that allowed the operator perform the
following functions:
o General
Configure (motion attributes, rinse, wash, drain attributes,
visions attributes, calibration, barcodes and built in
tests)
o Motion
Control (manual motion control of each axis. This can be
used to test and optimize the system)
o Machine
Vision (configure ROI and teach registration positions, also
set ROI for 2D barcode reading)
o Deck
Plate Position Teacher (automatically registers and teaches
the multiple deck plate positions)
o Maintenance
(load chips, fill/drain sonicator, fill/drain supply tank,
daily cleaning, rinse-wash-dry cycle, weekly conditioning)
o Mapping
(custom mapping of transfer of DNA from multi-format micro
titer plates to the multiple format
SpectroCHIP)
o Methods
(create, load and save custom methods used for a transfer
sequence, some times referred to as Recipes)
o Transfer
(start and stop an automatic transfer of DNA to an array of
SpectroCHIPs)
o Volume
Check (manually view and inspect the volume of DNA deposited
on the pads of the SpectroCHIP)
The software also
included a robotic control sever and all device interfaces
drivers for the following devices:
(3 axis XYZ Stepper
Motors with Linear Encoders that provided 1um resolution,
multiple pump motors, USB Vision Camera with LED Lighting,
USB 1D Barcode Scanner, Sonicator, Interlock Safety
and Limit Switches, Flat Panel Touch Display, and USB
Humidly and Temperature Sensor). All software was done in
mostly LabVIEW, and some C++ DLLs.
·
Designed and Developed
controls and software for a beach top Biophotonic Chip
Spectrum Analyzer.
This involved design of a
USB controlled stepper motors for 2 axis (XY) positioning
mechanism integrated with SBIG ST-402ME USB CCD temperature
controlled camera and a DSS-7 spectrograph. The software
involved a GUI that worked in two modes: (normal operation,
and research mode) And allowed the operator to perform the
following functions:
o Configure
(motion attributes, exposures, calibration, setup analysis
window and display normalized and line results images)
o Motion
Control (manual motion control of each axis. This can be
used to test and optimize the system)
o Data
Acquisition (acquire image data, save, load, and display
spectrum Image and scanned image)
o Data
Processing (build, display, and masking ROI and perform
proprietary algorisms)
o Special
mathematical algorisms, curve fits were developed. Also
device interfaces drivers
for the following
o Device:
(2 axis XY Stepper Motors, CCD temperature controlled
camera). Software was done mostly in LabVIEW and some
C++ DLLs.
·
Designed bench top
Microfluid Mixer that is able to produced high precision
digitally controlled biochemical nanoscale droplets of a
mixture of multiple chemical fluids. This allows for
the engineering of nanoparticales. Droplet chemistry
exploits the properties of immiscible fluids to achieve
high-precision, digital control of biochemical processes.
The proliferation of protein and antibody drugs in the
biopharmaceutical pipeline is driving the need for new drug
formulations and delivery protocols. This unique droplet
chemistry enables the optimization of these drugs throughout
the product life cycle, significantly reducing costs
and enhancing revenue for its customers.
The software involved a
Control Engine and GUI that allowed the operator to perform
the following functions:
o Configure
(motion attributes, teach home positions for 2 micro titer
plates, syringe attributes)
o Program
Mixtures (create, load, edit, save as Excel spreadsheet that
defines the mixtures for each micro titer plate position)
o Execute
Mixtures (run, pause and stop the automatic mixing /
positioning sequence)
o Graphical
Display (shows graphically both progress and state of micro
titer plates and sequence step on spread sheet)
·
The hardware consisted of
a (XY) 2-axis Servo Motor positioning gantry with a single
(Z) axis actuator, which worked very similar to a pen
plotter. A Microfluid Droplet Generator with 5 input
delivery tubes connected to 5 independent
·
USB digitally controlled
Syringe Pumps driven by individual Stepper Motors.
The software also included
a robotic control sever and all device interfaces drivers.
All software was done in LabVIEW.
·
Designed GUI and Control and Interface Software
for a Bio-Medical Cell Sorting and Counting Device. This
system interfaced to Lasers, Photo-Multiplies, Micro-Pump,
and a Line-Scan CCD Camera. LabVIEW and VC++ used in this
project. I optimize the Cell Sorting and Counting by
implementing this function in a FPGA.
·
Designed Control and
Data Acquisition System Software in LabVIEW for an R&D
Bio-Medical Cell Micro-Scatter Instrument. The system
interfaced to Lasers, Photo-multiplies, and designed Low
Level Driver Software in LabVIEW for a Micro-Pump.
·
Trouble shot a
problematic high speed Digital Vector Processor board used
in the front end of an ultrasound OEM system. Analyzed
board timing and guided redesign. I also designed and
implemented digital band-pass FIR filter and digital
high-pass IRR filter on boards existing XILINX XC4010E FPGA
to solve algorithm problems.
·
Designed a Research and
Development platform used to develop software algorithms for
diagnosing cancer with a commercial Ultrasound Machine.
The ultrasound and PC
systems were asynchronous to each other. This system
consisted of a Pentium Computer with a off the shelf DSP
TMS320C40 PCI board and a custom designed digital
acquisition board that grabbed data off the proprietary
front end of the Ultrasound machine and bridged the data to
the TMS320C40 4MByte dual port memory buffer that was then
access by algorithms developed on TMS320C40 DSP board.
This was done with Altera FPGA, Memory and
Differential Bus Drivers. This project lead to use of the
Ultrasound Scatter in the diagnoses of Cancer in patients.
Also served in a sales and application engineering capacity
at trade shows.
·
Designed a
battery-powered portable Ultrasound A-Scanner Control based
on an 8051-type uC, LCD Display, Altera-Flex FPGA and
high-speed ADC. I Designed hardware and software, layer
out and routed PCB. The software was done in C. This
became a product used in the market live stock industry to
measure fat thickness in Cows and Pigs.
·
Managed a group of
engineers and technicians. Also designed a complete
acquisition system for a Positron Emission Topography Camera
(PET). This system integrated a Sun Workstation, a Full
19” Electronic Rack, and an Imaging Gantry and Patient Bed.
The system starts with 6 solid large area NaI (TI) detectors
populated with 240 2”x2” Photo-Multipliers, and
Pre-Amplifiers. There a fast timing trigger leg and a time
delayed digitizing leg. All 240 synchronous channels are
digitized by 30MHz flash ADCs and Stored in FIFO memory.
After a coincidence detector pair is detected 2 x 40 channel
detectors processed by a discrete DSP board consisting
of PLDs, Memory and Multiplying Accumulators. I designed
this board call the Position Processing Union (PPU). The
PPU module calculates the (X, Y) positions in which the
coincident gamma rays interact with the large area NaI (TI)
detectors. A Centroid Algorithm that was implemented using
memory tables and digital signal processing IC devices like
Multiplying Accumulator and a variety of Altera PLDs. To
give some perspective on the capability of the PPU, consider
that I performed a simulation calculation using a 32 bit
CICS processor and found that it would have to perform over
1 billion instruction per second to keep pace with the PPU.
This made it possible to perform a Centroid algorithm in
real time to achieve better than 5 mm position resolution.
Then the (X, Y) position is processing by a
distortion-offset board that corrects for detector
distortions and defects. The data is then stored into a
Sinogram in shared dual port memory. Then the Sun
Workstation and its Array Processor back project data to
create metabolic images. The Sun Workstation’s VME bus was
interfaced to the VME Bus of the Acquisition Sub-System
through repeater bus cards that makes the Acquisition
Sub-System operate as a slave memory to the Sun
Workstation. I also designed the complete acquisition and
control software for system written in a mostly C, with some
386 assemblies used to optimize the packing and unpacking of
the Sinogram. We were fully processing over 200,000
radioactive positron Annihilations per/sec. This was all
state of the art back in the early 1980's. This was a start
up company and I was the first technical member to join this
venture. We took a multi-million dollar medical device,
from concept to a successful product in less then 3 years.
I also served in a sales and application-engineering
capacity at trade shows. UGM Medical Systems as bought by
ADAC Labs who was acquired by Philips in 2000.
·
Designed prototype
medical device called a Blood Plasma Viscosity Meter.
This device consists of a differential pressure-sensing
unit, which used a 68HC11 micro-controller interfaced to a
PC through the RS-232 port. All Software was done in C and
Visual Basic.
Industrial Automation:
·
Designed and
Developed
Custom High Speed 3 Axis
Servo Motion Control System with 40MHz Tracking Target and
Trigger. This project was able to use
off-the-shelf components priced at OEM integration cost with
a development time of approximately 6 months. This approach
allowed both 40MHz FPGA Servo control with integrated
tracking within a target area that then hardware triggers a
ultra-high speed dispensing valve. One might think closing
the control loop at 40MHz is over kill for a motion control
system, but when you are moving complex 2 dimensional path
at 2 meters/sec simultaneously and tracking position and
targeting to 1 micrometer resolution it turns out this
flexibility makes success possible without extremely
expensive and long schedule custom hardware and firmware
development which is typically required to attempt designing
and building a system with this performance and complexity.
One final benefit of this approach is the entire system is
also a real-time measurement data acquisition platform that
allows collection of position, velocity, acceleration, and
command signals while active motion and control with
tracking targeting and triggering is operating.
The Off-The-Shelf Components:
o
NI -
LabVIEW Development Platform - Windows - Real-Time –
Embedded FPGA
o
Beckoff - TwinCAT - Windows - Soft PLC - Motion Library
o
Beckoff - EtherCAT Industrial PC - Acts as a Motion
Sequencer
o
NI - 9144 EtherCAT Slave
Expansion - Integrates CompactRIO C Series I/O Modules with
FPGA
·
Designed and Developed
LabVIEW Embedded ARM
Controller for ALGAE
BIOMASS REACTOR.
This research project used a
Texas Instrument's ARM evaluation board which has become the
scaleable foundation of the embedded control and measurement
system for a ALGAE BIOMASS REACTOR. This system can control
lighting, temperature, pH chemistry, and fluid circulation
rates, while also measuring parameters of interest like
growth rates, fluid translucency, and fluid viscosity. The
FIRMWARE was developed using mostly LabVIEW Embedded ARM
Tools; with some optimized C programming to perform things
like inline FIRMWARE upgrade reprogramming. This approach
is amazingly flexible, and expandable by just adding more
ARM Microcontroller Boards that can be linked and
synchronized through a CAN bus or the Ethernet bus.
·
Designed and Developed
controls software for a Nanoscale Imprinting Lithography
machine. This
involved interfacing to a UV light control and controlling 5
precisions USB programmable PID Actuators/Monitors Valves.
These valves controlled the pneumatics of the system. The
software involved a control sequencer engine and a GUI
allowed the operator to perform the following functions:
o
Configure (valve (PID attributes, pressure set points, time
intervals), UV exposure time)
o
Program Sequence (create, load, edit, save
sequence/sub-sequence attributes)
o
Execute Mixtures (run, pause and stop the automatic
imprinting sequence)
o
Graphical Display (shows graphically sequence position and
state of valves and time remaining to completion)
This project has lead
to the licensing of this technology by HP to
enable the fabrication of semiconductor chips significantly
more powerful than those available today.
All software was done in
LabVIEW
·
Designed entire control system
for a Flip Chip Bonding Machine.
This machine was design to epoxy bond dies to substrates (in
this case, Chip On Glass COG). The substrate was a glass
cell phone display, but could also be any glass display. The
system consisted of the integration, control and monitoring
of a group of subsystems. These subsystems where: Vacuum and
Pneumatics for pick and place, 6 Linear Servo Motor Slides,
3 Stepper Motors, Position Encoding down to a resolution of
1 micrometer, UV-Light, Heaters, and Pressure Cell for
setting epoxy. Also a Vision System and Lighting for
indexing and positioning substrate and die. The whole thing
was built on a steel frame with a 6” slab of granite and a
granite archway for overhead motions. Control and Monitoring
was accomplished with an Industrial Pentium Computer, Video
Frame Grabber, and National Instruments PCI Multi-Function
Data Acquisition I/O Boards. The user Interface was mostly
done through a touch screen monitor. Also designed
entire control system software. This Software consists
Graphical User Interfaces, Process Control Sequencer Engine,
Vision System Registration and Alignment Engine, Teach and
Learn Process Engine, individual Device Control and
Measurement Drivers, and Report Generation Engine. This
development was done mostly using LabVIEW with some DLLs
created using VC++ that were then interfaced to LabVIEW. The
Vision software was created from a commercial library that
was designed into DLLs. Control and measurement drivers
developed for this project consisted of the following
devices: Stepper and Linear Servo Motors, Position,
UV-Light, Heaters, Vision, Vacuum, Pneumatics, Lighting,
Pressure Cell, and Temperature. Also served in a sales and
application engineering capacity at international trade
shows.
·
Designed, Trouble Shoot
and Modified Sub-Systems of a troubled project that involved
the manufacturing of Proto-Type Vertical Semiconductor Wafer
Chemical Processing Equipment. A company that went out
of business was originally developing this for IBM. A
small group of contract engineers and myself stepped in and
completed the design and manufacture of the equipment, which
was delivered to IBM and used in the fabrication of their
Dynamic Memory Wafers. This machine involved robotics,
loading and transport of 8" wafers, control and monitoring
of temperature and chemical environment.
·
Project managed product
development, budget and funding, and designed the mechanical
and electrical controls of an industrial paper conversion
machine. Coordinated all 3rd party venders and contract
manufactures while also interfacing with customers. This
machine dispensing 3-ply recycled packing paper for use in
shipping departments. I invented a very low cost
electronic eye switch circuit and PCB. This was done to
reduce the cost of an industrial paper conversion machine.
Standard off the shelf electronic eye switch cost between
$70 to $100 dollars, and my electronic eye switch could be
manufactured for less then $5 dollars. I invented power-line
data communication hardware Device. This hardware consisted
of a power-line coupling coil and proprietary frequency
modulated and demodulated transmission and reception
protocols that were implemented in programmable logic. This
device achieved data rates of 9600bits/sec without
compression and was able to transmit through a power
transformer at rates up to 1200bits/sec. Patent was applied
for on this device. This was done back in 1988.
·
Designed post accident
sampling systems for a Nuclear Power Plant. Also
designed multiple reactor instrument loops and portions of
the security parameter that used E-Fields and Microwave
intruder detection for Nuclear Power Plant. I also
developed a isolated acquisition system for control room
instrumentations. I also wrote a chapter in a post accident
response plan document submitted to the NRC.
·
Created a variety of
software programs applied at a Nuclear Power Plant. One
program was a preventative maintenance database - outage
planning - job tracking software that became the corner
stone for an industrial standard. I also created a database
and analyses software that modeled the radiation equipment
would be exposed to in the event of an accident-taking
place.
·
Designed remote 8051
based embedded control board that controlled Stepper Motors,
DC Motors and monitored position encoding and interfaced a
remote control panel and display. Was also linked to the
main acquisition system through a RS232 port.
R&D and
Product Development
·
I am in the process of
developing a Inventeering property which is a Wireless 32bit
RISC Micro-controller System On Chip (SOC) Platform that is
programmed with LabVIEW Embedded. This platform will
have the following hardware functions: (2.4GHz IEEE802.15.4
and ZigBee radio, up to 4km range, 128kB ROM, 128kB RAM, 4MB
Flash, 2.6uA sleep mode, 4 input ADC, 2 output DAC, 2
Comparators, 5 select SPI port, 4-wire digital audio
interface, application 3 timer/counters, 3 system timers, 1
I2C port, 2 RS232 (TTL) ports, Watchdog timer, up to 21
DIO, This technology will have multiple OEM application:
o
Medical device that may require a (closed-looped control
functions and wireless linkage to Internet)
o
Wireless or USB Smart Sensor platform for (building, homes
and industry)
o
Wireless Networked Control and Monitoring Systems like (wind
and solar farms)
o
Wireless Metering and Control Systems like proposed (smart
electric grid)
o
Wireless Data Acquisition Systems for (labs, test and
measure, and automobile industry)
o
Wireless PID Controls like (environmental chamber
temperature control)
o
Wireless Remote Control of Robotic Devices
o
Wireless Video Surveillance System
This development will also integrate with
my OLED Toolkit for LabVIEW. Still considering how to
license this technology.
·
Designed a Test,
Calibrate, Tune, Diagnostics and Analysis, Data Acquisition
System for use in the development of a new Medical Device
for a Cannula based Sleep Apnea called a Continuous Positive
Airway Pressure (CPAP) device.
This System used a Laptop PC, a National Instruments
PCMCIA DAQ card and interfaced to proto-type CPAP device
through its RS323 port. Nationals System ID Toolkit was
also used when I developed LabVIEW Data Acquisition Server
and GUI interface that
allowed the operator to
perform the following functions:
o Configure
(CPAP attributes for streaming system data through RS323,
and DAQ Attributes for channel and timing).
o CPAP
Command Terminal to manual sends and receives low-level
device commands and results.
o Data
Acquisition where both CPAP stream system channels data and
DAQ channels data can be sampled and display in
real-time. Examples CPAP channels are: (Mode, Temperatures
for (Ambient, Air, and Water), Air Heat Voltage, System
Flow, System Pressure, Nose Pressure, ADC Channels, Target
Reference Pressure, Blower Speed, Linear Position). Example
DAQ channels are (Stimulus, Pressures at (pre-humidifier,
post-humidifier, cannula, nose, spare and trigger). All
data is also logged into a data file and can be reloaded to
run in simulation mode or used for independent analysis.
o Calibration
where CPAP system data can be streamed and displayed in
Cross Reference Plot with Best Fit algorithms.
o Tune
PID Control Loop by real-time acquisition being displayed in
a CPAP Tune PID Plot that consists of Gains and selectable
Error channels and a DAQ Channels Plot also. Each PID Gain
type can be automatically sequenced through stepped
intervals to determine the best Proportional Gain, Integral
Gain, and Derivative Gain settings.
o System
ID models were also applied to solve some control algorithm
problems. Three models were tried, Hammerstein,
Hammerstein-Wiener, and Wiener). This GUI tab was designed
as a plug in that other modeling VI's could be added. This
functionality of integrated so that any input channel and
output channel of the system could be selected.
o Built-In
Diagnostic Tests for the CPAP could also be executed.
·
Designed a Distributed
Fiber Sensor System build on a DELPHI 2 GS/S10-Bit ADC
ADC3200 Module. Using coherent radio-frequency
detection of spontaneous Brillouin scattering does this
system. An
actively stabilized single-frequency Brillouin fiber laser
with extremely low phase noise and intensity noise is used
as a well-defined, frequency-shifted local oscillator for
the heterodyne detection, yielding measurements of
spontaneous Brillouin scattering with high frequency
stability. Based on this approach, a highly stable real-time
fiber sensor for distributed measurements of both
temperature and strain over long fiber up to over 10
kilometers long has been developed utilizing advanced
digital signal processing techniques. The ADC3200 Module
has a Xilinx Virtex II Pro FPGA XC2VP20/50 device that will
be used for inline algorithm processing. It also interfaces
to a PC's PCI bus. This project went through a multi-stage
development evolution. The 1st stage used the ADC3200
module in a PC to just for collect and acquire data while
all the algorithms were developed in a collaborative effort
using MATLAB on the PC. The 2nd stage involved importing
the MATLAB algorithms into LabVIEW based Data Acquisition,
Processing, and Display and Control program with GUI. The
3rd stage involved converting all the MATLAB functionality
and algorithms over to LabVIEW. The 4th and final stage
involved identifying the parts of the processing algorithms
that can be push down into the Xilinx FPGA on the ADC3200
Module and then implementing this by interfacing LabVIEW to
a adc3200 ActiveX control that downloads the FPGA firmware
and interfaces the LabVIEW engine and GUI. The final
LabVIEW GUI was optimized and simplified to allowed the
operator to perform the
following functions:
o Configure
(capture control attributes, and the acousto-optic modulator
attributes
o Acquire
Real-Time and Display Root Graphs of Uncorrected/Corrected
Linear Intensity and Frequency over Distance.
o Acquire
Real-Time and Display Strain Graphs of Fiber Strain over
Distance.
o Acquire
Real-Time and Display Temperature Graphs of Fiber
Temperature over Distance.
o Execution
Control (Control is much like a DVD player/recorder with a
button for to play, pause, stop and record. All of these
acquisitions can be save and load into graphs.)
It should be noted that stage 1 through 3 had GUI's dozens
of attributes and parameters used for experimentation and
system characterization.
·
I developed Dewarper Software for Images taken
with a Fisheye Lens. This software consisted of a GUI
interface where Image files can be loaded or dragged into a
graphic display area. I created ROI tools to crop the
circle image, which then get dewarped by selectable
attributes dependent on Lens and Camera type along with
multiple dewarp algorithms which can reconstruct image up to
180 degrees in both X and Y axis to make panorama views.
Also taking two or three of these dewarped images that were
taken at 180 or 120 degree rotations can be stitched
together can create these 360 degree viewing bubble we see
on the internet for viewing internals of Autos, Rooms and
Street Views. I also developed the TIFF read and write
formats along with BMP, JPG, and PNG formats. I created 2
version of this software. One version programmed in
LabVIEW on a PC running Windows
XP/VISA/7 and the second version was ported to
LabVIEW on a Mac running OS X.
Finally because of today's extremely large digital image
resolutions and file sizes, I developed an
image-partitioning algorithm that allows the images to
divided in to partitioned sections and process as small
sub-regions so processing larger images is not limited to
computer memory size.
·
Designed a LabVIEW based
USB Digital Logic Analyzer Data Acquisition System.
This project involved unique approach by using a low cost
off the shelf 34 channel 500MHz USB Logic Analyzer that had
its own GUI software that was literally kidnapped into a
LabVIEW program designed to automate and integrated the
Logic Analyzer GUI software. This was done by tapping into
low-level Windows API functions. This allowed the
automation of configuration and acquisition, which would
then have Low Pass Chebyshev and FIR filters along with
other algorithms, was applied to the data. This project
validated funding for a new photonic product development.
·
Designed Data
Acquisition and Logging Software Systems that
included advanced algorithm development and 2D and 3D
calibration, and interpolation methods for 2 different types
of Fiber-Optic Sensor Systems. One was a deep oil well
Pressure and Temperature Measurement System and the other
was a Distributed Temperature and Pressure Measurement
System. The Optical Pressure and Temperature was based on
analysis of of non-linear curve fitting of fiber reflected
light pulse. This system used a AGILENT 8164A Lightwave
Measurement System. The Distributed technology was based on
use of the Raman backscattering components are caused by
thermally influenced molecular vibrations from the
propagating light pulse. Thus, their intensity depends on
temperature. The Raman backscattered light has two
components that lie symmetric to the Raleigh peak: the
Stokes peak and Anti-Stokes peak. Most of the system was
developed in LabVIEW, but some of the low lever drivers were
developed in VB and VC++. These projects first involved the
development of R&D software version that was then converted
into Commercial Product Version. This project also involved
C code design for an 8051-based board with a USB interface
and a design of a Windows 2000 USB Driver in Microsoft
Visual C++, for a Cypress USB 8051based Micro-Controller.
The LabVIEW code also included a top level GUI to allow
operator to configure and log results. A extensive offline
LabVIEW based 2D and 3D Calibration tools that involved
advanced DSP (linear and non-linear curve fittings,
filtering, windowing, step functions, etc.) and graphing
were also developed.
·
Designed a Chromagraph
Data Extractor. This involved using a ORTEC 9353 100-ps
Time Digitizer / MCS PCI card that functions as a time
digitizer or a multi-channel scalar. It measures the
arrival times of Start pulses and multiple Stop pulses with
a precision of 100 ps. I developed a LabVIEW Interface
Library for this card and used it to create a GUI that
allowed the operator to (start, stop, save and load data
from the ORTEC 9353 card and also display, mark and extract
ROI of the Chromagraph and display in a Histogram.
·
Designed a digital
Un-Resequencer Scan Converter (URSC) Printed Circuit Board
used in Digital DirecTV R&D Project. Designed using
Altera MAX devices. This was done at the David Sarnoff
Research Center in New Jersey for Hughes. I was part of a
group of 60 Independent Contracting Engineers put together
to research and develop what became what we now call
DirecTV. One accomplishment I had was the design,
simulation and debug of 3 different Large FPGAs in 3 months.
·
Designing an R&D Board
that interfaced to VME bus and was based on the MC68020 and
TI VHSIC 1750A CPU. Also had I/O support for the 1553B
and circuitry for an Advanced Condition Engine Monitor.
·
Designed digital
circuits that replaced analog circuits for Jet Engine
controls. This was done to increase reliability,
accuracy, and reduced board real estate. Designed circuit
functions like speed, angular position revolvers, linear
position LVPTs, fuel flow and torque measurements. This was
accomplished using programmable logic devices. I received a
patent on my technique and design of hardware torque
averaging and calibration decoding circuits and the software
algorithms.
Test and
Measure:
·
Designed
Automatic EEPROM
Characterization System
Here is a
sample of a test solution that automatically sequences
waffer position and test programs while acquiring data in an
Excel Spread format. This software interfaces and controls
the following hardware:
o
ALGILENT
4155B – Semiconductor Parameter Analyzers (GPIB)
o
KARL SUSS
PA200 - Semi-Automatic Probe System (Ethernet)
·
Designed a
Automated Manufacturing Production Test System for a
Indoor/Outdoor Digital Microwave RF Link. This Test
Station was designed to test multiple devices in a
environment test chamber that is controlled and integrated
into the Test Station. The main component that this station
tested is the Up/Down RF Frequency Converter. Cabling and
Components for tested 6GHz, 11GHz and 18GHz RF Microwave
units. The software involved control of GPIB based (880MHz
Signal Generator, up to 20GHz Microwave Analog Signal
Generator, Spectrum Analyzer, Programmable DC Power
Supplies, RF Power Meter, DMM, Programmable RF Attenuators,
Switches, Armature Multiplexers and Digital I/O). Also a
USB Barcode Reader and a RS232 control interface for a
temperature environmental chamber. Software also had a
built in semi-automatic black box calibration functions to
tune system for dynamic frequency cable/connector/component
losses. The software
involved a control sequencer engine and a GUI allowed the
operator to perform the following functions:
o Configure
(Model, Band, # of Channels, 3 Temperature Set Points, and
Soak Time Intervals, file path for test result reports)
o DUT
Tuning (semi-automatic tuning of Rx and Tx center channels)
o Execute
Mixtures (run, pause and stop the automatic testing)
o Graphical
Display (shows graphically spread sheet of progress of Rx
and Tx channels tested, which also get written to an Excel
test report file)
The DUT is also
digitally programmed thru a SPI bus based on Model, Band and
Channel. Testing algorithms mostly involve programming and
configuration of the Spectrum Analyzer, but superposition
model analysis is also used. Parameters tested
are stepped through channels relevant to specific band of
DUT. Parameters program and tested are: (RxFREQ, RxPin,
RxPout, RxGain, RxGainFlatness, RxSpurs under different
conditions and TxFREQ, TxPin, TxPout, TxGainFlatness,
TxHarmonics, TxSpurs under different conditions, 5VIc, 8VIc,
TxDet, sweep TxPout, TxDet). The DUTs are tested at 3
different Temperature conditions (Cold, Room, Hot).
All software was done
in LabVIEW.
·
Designed a Production
Manufacturing Test System for a Wireless Gateway used to
create a FrameMesh Video Network of very low power Wireless
Cameras. This system involved a pogo pin test fixture
interfaced to a National Instruments PXI Chase and a Laptop
PC that served as the Control and Data Acquisition System
with software I developed in LabVIEW. A Macraigor JTAG
USBWiggler programming / debugging interface device is also
used. Other USB, RS323 ports, SPI bus and an Ethernet port
are used for test and downloading. This Gateway is tested
with and without a Wireless 2.4GHz Radio Module that links
up to the Wireless Video Cameras that are networked to this
Gateway. A open source TFTP 32bit Server is Integrated into
the LabVIEW code to allow for file transfers between the PC
and the Gateway Unit. I developed the LabVIEW software to
contain a Vector Test Engine Server, and Shelldriver
interfaces to all the hardware and communication protocols
like (Macraigor USBWiggler, Gateway BOOT Com, Gateway Com,
and Gateway Telnet, PXI DMM, PXI Programmable Power). The
Gateway uses an ARM XSCALE processor with 32MB Flash, 16MB
RAM running on an Embedded Linux Platform.
My software served 2
functions, first to download bootstrap, kernel and configure
a blank Gateway Unit and then Test it. I developed a
LabVIEW GUI that allows the operator to perform the
following functions:
o Configure
(Model, Serial Number, Vender Number (VNN) and Media Access
Control (MAC) Addresses, and Memory Map)
o DUT
Programming (automatically erase and load Boot Loader, Flash
Rom, Kernel, and Root File System through a combination of
ports and protocols)
o Automatic
Test (executes a sequences of Test Vectors that perform
Electrical Test, Firmware Test, and all the interfaces)
o Report
Generation (automatically generates Excel Spread Sheet Test
Report)
This product is coming to market in the
second half of 2009 and is being marketed as consumer
product called "Vue™ Personal Video Network"
·
Designed and Developed
controls software for a Nanoscale Imprinting Lithography
machine. This
involved interfacing to a UV light control and controlling 5
precisions USB programmable PID Actuators/Monitors Valves.
These valves controlled the pneumatics of the system. The
software involved a control sequencer engine and a GUI
allowed the operator to perform the following functions:
o
Configure (valve (PID attributes, pressure set points, time
intervals), UV exposure time)
o
Program Sequence (create, load, edit, save
sequence/sub-sequence attributes)
o
Execute Mixtures (run, pause and stop the automatic
imprinting sequence)
o
Graphical Display (shows graphically sequence position and
state of valves and time remaining to completion)
This
project has lead to the licensing of this technology by HP
to enable the fabrication of semiconductor chips
significantly more powerful than those available today.
All software was done in LabVIEW.
·
Designed Precision
Humidity Sensors Automated Production Test and Calibration
System. This
involved designing a digital interface to eight stacked
Humidity Sensor test boards with each board having 64 test
channels that allowed for 60 sensors to be populated in test
sockets. 4 channels are used for gain and offset
calibration. Each test board has a SPI interface and
digital I/O for analog multiplexer control and programming
and reading each sensor’s I2C EEPROM memory with TED
information. I was able to perform this by using a off the
shelf USB FPGA board called Morph-IC. This board contained
a FTDI USB to Parallel converter device and an Altera FPGA.
I designed the FPGA to in interface to the SPI bus that
connected a A/D and Differential Amp circuit and turn it
into a local digital storage scope on each sensor test
board. I then designed a connection interface PCB that this
Morph-IC board plugged into, and this sat outside and by the
cabling port of a programmable environment chamber and the
Test PC sat in a different room connected through the
Morph-IC USB port. This was a very elegant solution, which
allowed for tight configuration of timing and digital
filtering minimizing the noise levels to microvolts. The
software design involved a control sequencer engine and a
GUI allowed the operator to perform the following functions:
o Configure
(A/D digitization attributes, timing and averaging)
o Manual
Test (quick scan boards to detect populated sensor channels,
and acquire individual sensor data or all sensors)
o Data
Generation (load, save data acquisition results in a Excel
spread sheet file.)
o Manual
Graphical Display (shows graphically data sampling graph of
Humidity and Temperature and curve fit means, also shows two
spreadsheet tables of 64 channel sensor measurements. One
table for humidity and one for temperature. Table cells a
color ledger to determine state of measurement.
o Automatic
Execution (operator user login, automatically runs complete
test and calibration cycles and generates test report and
logs data results into a SQL Database, also controls
calibration environmental chamber temperature and humidity,
generates calibration tables and loads them into each
sensors EEPROM in a TED format)
The FPGA firmware was
developed using
Altera Quartus II tools and stored as a HEX file that gets
stored in the System Registry, where it is loaded from to
the FPGA on software initialization. All
software was done in LabVIEW and a FPGA Toolkit for LabVIEW
was developed as a result of this project.
·
Designed entire control system
for a Non-Contact Printed Circuit Board Testing Machine.
The system is based on use of a vacuum, electric fields,
UV-Laser and phenomena called the Photoelectric Effect. This
allows for Non-Contact testing of a PCB’s for open and
shorts. The system started with a PC and PCI interface
boards and matured into a National Instruments PXI
instrument chassis that contained an embedded PXI Pentium
Computer, High-Speed PXI Digital IO with embedded real-time
Computer, and High-Speed PXI Analog Acquisition Board. These
boards and other interfaces like GPIB, RS232, are used to
control and monitor other subsystem components like a Solid
State UV-Laser, Galvanometers, Vision System, Vacuum Pumps
and Monitors, Pneumatics, Pizzo-motors, Chiller, Lighting,
Grid, and Temperature Thermocouples. I came up with
innovations and techniques that are now Patents Pending.
Also designed entire control system software. This
Software consists Graphical User Interfaces, Process Control
Sequencer Engine, Vision System Registration and Alignment
Engine, Preprocess IPC net list compiler, Continuity
Algorithms, individual Device Control and Measurement
Drivers, and Report Generation Engine. This development was
done mostly using LabVIEW with some DLLs created using VC++
that were then interfaced to LabVIEW. Control and
measurement drivers developed for this project consisted of
the following devices: UV-Laser, Galvanometers, Vision
System, Vacuum, Pneumatics, Pizzo-motors, Chiller, Lighting,
Grid, and Temperature.
·
Designed Semi-Automatic
Test & Measure Software in LabVIEW for testing and
characterization of Fiber-Optic TAP Devices. Resulting
data was stored as Microsoft Excel Spread Sheet files and in
a Microsoft Access Database. This system interfaced to USB,
RS232, and GPIB test equipment like Wavelength Spectrum
Scanning Devices and Optical Interrogators and Fiber-Optic
Wavelength Filters and Coupler Switches.
·
Designed and implement a general
high-speed automatic test station platform that interfaces
to different functional test fixers.
The system is based on National
Instruments PXI instrument chassis that contained an
embedded PXI Pentium Computer, PXI Digital Storage
Oscilloscope, Digital Multi-Meter, PXI Switch Matrix Relay
Board, and a PXI Multi-Function Analog and Digital
Acquisition Board.
·
Involved in new product
development of commercial SPECT Camera solved technical
problems as product went from proto-type to manufactured
product. I also designed and implement a high-speed
automatic test station that emulated the analog and digital
bus interface for a solid-state front end of a commercial
SPECT Camera that is similar to a CCD type interface. Design
consisted of the integration of a USB 8051 micro-controller,
costume programmed Altera Flex device, memory, high-speed
differential DAC and ADC.
·
Designed a Graphical
User Interface and low-level library to interface to a FPGA
board through a USB interface. One application for this
software was a Random Pulse Generator that had a
programmable base frequency with random pulse widths and
frequency jitter. This software would load the FPGA with its
programming and then set the control parameters for the
Random Pulse Generator. I also designed the Altera FPGA
Random Pulse Generator in VHDL code.
·
Designed an integrated generic
ATE system called the Digital Functional Tester (DFT).
This system consists of a rack of electronics that contains
Programmable Power Supplies, Video Generation and Measure
equipment, a VXI chassis with multiple boards: (Digital
Multi-Meter, Frequency Measure, Relay Multiplex, Interface
Technology’s High Speed Digital Bus Generation and
Capture/Compare analyzer, and JTAG Interface board). A PC
through PCI/MXI to MXI/VXI/VME Interfaces controls the
system. All the Racks equipment is interface to a Virginia
type receiver panel that is mated to different personality
test fixtures.
·
Designed Automatic Test
Vector Control Software. This Software consists Graphical
User Interfaces, Vector Sequencer Control Process
Engine, Individual Test Vectors, and Report Generation
Engine into a Word Template Document and to Excel Data
Results Tables. This development was done using LabVIEW.
Miscellaneous:
·
Developed Layout,
Artwork, Text and Function of my Companies Corporate
Website. This was done using Microsoft's FrontPage
along with some HTML, Java and PHP Scripts. Also linkage to
e-commerce shopping chart that allows for customers to
purchase our products online and pay with Credit Cards,
PayPal, and Digital Check direct from Bank.
·
Licensing Toolkit for
LabVIEW allows software developers to seamlessly integrate a
License Control into shared LabVIEW projects or products
they develop and wish to distribute. The capability to
create trial version of software with time limits that can
then be activated to a fully executable, or LabVIEW
environment only license through a simple customer specific
encrypted file or password protected activation VI. This
software also contains License Generation VI that can be run
as a Top Level GUI or integrated into a custom automation
system that the customer creates. This is now a commercial
product that is distributed and sold through the Internet.
·
CamViewIT Toolkit for
LabVIEW can acquire, display, process and save streaming
video and audio from any device that is compatible with the
DirectShow interface standard. This includes many USB
and FireWire (IEEE 1394) Video/Audio Cameras and Frame
Grabbers and a few PCI Bus Frame Grabbers. I developed this
product and it contains 2 custom ActiveX Controls (ocx)
files developed in C++ and Visual Basic allow with a LabVIEW
library (llb) file, I have also written a Programmers
Reference Manual (pdf) file, and an and Installation
Instructions Manual (pdf). Also I have created a growing
archive of use examples. This is now a commercial product
that is distributed and sold through the Internet.
·
INVtray Toolkit for
LabVIEW allows the creation of LabVIEW programs that can
access the Window's System Tray. Now you can make your
LabVIEW program show up with your custom icon, pop up tool
tip, and pop up menu in the system tray. I developed this
product and it contains 2 custom ActiveX Controls (ocx)
files developed in Visual Basic allow with a LabVIEW library
(llb) file, also I have created a growing archive of use
examples. This is now a commercial product that is
distributed and sold through the Internet.
·
RFID Toolkit for LabVIEW
allows LabVIEW programmers to interface to and use off the
shelf Phidgets RFID Read Boards with RFID tags. When
RFID tags are brought in close proximity to the reader and
returns the tag identification number. RFID (radio
frequency identification) systems use data strings stored
inside RFID tags or transponders) to uniquely identify
people or objects when they are scanned by an RFID reader.
These types of systems are found in many applications such
as passport protection, animal identification, inventory
control systems, and secure access control systems. I
developed a software library in LabVIEW that interfaces to a
Phidgets ActiveX Control that interfaced to the hardware.
Use examples were developed demonstrating an event handling
interface and a polled interface. It is now a commercial
product that is distributed and sold through the Internet.
·
OLED Toolkit for LabVIEW
with Touch Screen allows programmers to interface to a 4D
Systems 2.83" Active Matrix OLED device. I have
developed software tools to create HMI GUIs in LabVIEW that
can be exported to a OLED Touch Screen through either USB or
RS232, then automatic updating of controls and touch events
will be generated by the OLED Touch Screen and interfaced in
to any LabVIEW program, included LabVIEW Embedded code.
This is now being productized and will become a commercial
product that is distributed and sold through the Internet.
This software has developed using 4DGL (Graphical Language)
and LabVIEW.
·
Relay/IO Toolkit for
LabVIEW with a Programmable State Machine Sequencer allows
programmers to interface and control Phidgets USB Relay and
or Digital Input/Output Boards. I developed a software
library in LabVIEW that interfaces to a Phidgets ActiveX
Control that interfaced to the hardware. A State Machine
use example allows programmers to create a state and timed
sequences that can be saved and loaded as a (XML) file.
This is being productized and will soon be a commercial
product that is distributed and sold through the Internet.
·
RC Toolkit for LabVIEW
allows programmers to interface and control RC Motors
through a USB Phidgets RC Motor Control Boards. I
developed a software library in LabVIEW that interfaces to a
Phidgets ActiveX Control that interfaced to the hardware. A
use example allows a program the RC Motors position. This
is being productized and will soon be a commercial product
that is distributed and sold through the Internet.
·
The SkypeIT Toolkit for
LabVIEW allows programmers to interface to the Skype
Internet VOIP platform. The Skype platform handles
Video/Audio, SMS Text messages, Instant Messaging (IM), File
Transfer, and Peer-to-Peer Data Bi-directional Transfer. I
developed an ActiveX DLL Skype API Server and interfaced it
and created a LabVIEW library that allows programmers access
to all the functionality of the Skype Platform. I have also
developed encryption and compression algorithms and some
fundamental MySQL tools that will allow for LabVIEW
developments to create Peer-to-Peer Remote Control and Data
Acquisition Systems linked to a Remote MySQL Databases, Also
IMs and SMS Text Messaging Alerts and Status Updating is
possible. Considering productizing this either as a service
or a software tool.
·
Configured Fan and
non-Fan Mini-ITX and Nano-ITX Small Form Factor PC Systems
with Non-Volatile Flash Disk with minimized Windows XP or
Linux and ported LabVIEW to run on these platforms.
This offers a small PC based acquisition and control
solution for a multitude of applications and systems. The
Nano-ITX is a full PC with the footprint size of a 2.5" Hard
Drive. Also the Linux I used is Open Source and is free
cutting out about $100 USD per unit in OEM applications.
·
ORTEC 9353 100-ps Time
Digitizer / MCS Interface Library for LabVIEW is software I
developed for a R&D project.
·
Designed embedded
real-time control software in a multitude of projects based
on 8bit and 16bit Micro-Controllers such as the 68HC11,
68HC16 and derivatives of the 8051 including a USB 8051.
·
Design Graphical User
Interface and Stepper Motor Control Software in LabVIEW for
XYZ positioning stage.
·
Designed Multiple
ActiveX Controls and DLLs in Microsoft Visual C++ and Visual
Basic. That was used to interface to USB devices and PLX
PCI bus Chipsets.
·
Designed a Dual Channel
ARINC 429 Bus Monitor Printed Circuit Board (ABMB) used in a
proprietary MicroDAS-1000 system. Designed using ACTEL
A1280 FPGA, ARINC Bus IC, SRAM and 68HC11E9 Micro-controller
·
Invented circuitry and
methodology for converting a USB differential bus into two
single direction fiber optic busses and then back to a USB
differential bus. (Evaluating for Patent application)
·
Designed miscellaneous
utility programs like the generation of DSP lookup tables,
data translations, net list generation, Internet functions,
FIR and IRR filter modeling, radiation dosage modeling,
seismic analysis of equipment in the event of an earthquake,
and multiple Windows API wrappers.
·
Designed a Bill of
Material Generator Program that bridged the interface gap
between PCAD schematic software and AGILE document control
software and Excel spreadsheet software. This program
was linked to a master parts list and would allow you to
create an Excel or Agile parts list from a PCAD schematic
and back-annotate it into the schematic. This Software
consists Graphical User Interfaces, schematic net list
parsing engine and output formatting engine. This
development was done using LabVIEW
·
Designed VME Bus Master
and Slave Interface Circuitry using AMD MACH family PLD
parts
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