Experience

Emblation

• United Kingdom
• Medical Equipment Manufacturing
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Principle Hardware Engineer

  • Jan 2016 - Present

  I am the lead hardware engineer for a customer specific microwave generator containing a number of circuit boards, which is used for the treatment of cancer tumours. I am responsible for designing 5 out of the 6 boards, and all 6 FPGAs within the generator. In this role I am responsible for: * Requirements capture (using Aligned Elements): * Flowing customer requirements down to generator, board and FPGA firmware levels. * Verification protocols on all levels of requirements. * Interface Control Documents. * Firmware development plans. * Schematic capture and PCB layout of 5 boards within the generator (using Altium Designer) - including librarian functions. * VHDL design and verification testing of 6 FPGAs within the generator (using HDL Works’ Ease and Mentor Graphics Modelsim). * Functional testing of boards. * Verification testing of boards and full generator. * Approving many mechanical aspects of the generator design. I follow company QMS (to ISO 13485) and policy documents for the module and firmware requirements / verification / designs. I liaise with sub-contractors regarding design, build and testing of the generator. I liaise with the customer regarding any changes they wish to make, and progress updates. I have created and contributed to company Standard Operating Procedures. I also have technical input into other microwave generator designs within the company. Show less



Leonardo

• Italy
• Defense and Space Manufacturing
• 700 & Above Employee

• Principal Hardware Development Engineer

  • Sep 2009 - Dec 2015

  I was the lead engineer and design authority for a system communications module for the Captor Radar Processor in the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft. The module consists of Xilinx FPGAs / CPLDs, multiple memory types, avionics interfaces, Ethernet interfaces, video circuitry and a PowerPC based micro-controller.I was responsible for the design of one of the high speed PCBs and supervising of the other. I was also a key designer for the on-board FPGAs and CPLD.In this role I was responsible for:* Component selection.* Schematic capture (using Mentor Graphics' Board Architect and latterly Expedition Enterprise)* PCB stack-up and characteristics (using Mentor's Hyperlynx)* Routing topologies and PCB design rules.* FPGA / CPLD pin-out optimisation (using Mentor's IO Designer)* PCB signal / power integrity simulation (using Mentor's Hyperlynx and Interconnect Synthesis)* PCB design validation.* FPGA / CPLD design, verification, validation and regression testing.I followed company policy documents for the module and firmware design, similar to DO-254.I was actively involved in all aspects of documentation, from requirements capture to test reports, for all aspects of the system (using IBM's DOORS)I continuously liaised with various functions throughout the design: components, thermal, PCB, mechanical, software, firmware, procurement, drawing office, configuration management, project management.I provided input to the thermal and mechanical drawings for heat exchanger structure, PCB assemblies and module assembly.I tested the first few prototype boards using various commercial test equipment / be-spoke test fixtures and proved the connectivity with JTAG Technologies software.I designed the Power and Test Control CPLD using VHDL and verified that the requirements were met by writing a fully automatic test bench in VHDL, simulated with Mentor's Modelsim - RTL and gate level.Many previous VHDL design are used within the master FPGA. Show less

• Senior Hardware Engineer

  • Jan 2001 - Sep 2009

  [Company called BAE Systems at this point]In this role, I designed one half of the predecessor to the module that I currently design, but starting off at a slightly lower level: I was given the bulk of the module requirements.I also designed the master FPGA on the module responsible for configuring and interfacing with all sub-systems on the module.Both the board design and FPGA are flight proven and have been flying in the Typhoon's radar for many years.

• Hardware Engineer

  • May 1996 - Jan 2001

  [Company called GEC Marconi Avionics at this time IIRC]In this role I diagnosed and fixed design flaws / faults with Data Processing modules for the Captor Tranche 1 Radar Processor, raising the necessary paperwork to formally release any changes.I also designed bespoke production test equipment for 3 processing modules which is still in use to this day.

• Engineering Trainee

  • Sep 1992 - May 1996

  [Company was GEC Ferranti when I joined]As a trainee, I designed various items of bespoke test equipment for system level radar integration whilst doing day release to university, studying for my BSc.