Electrical Power Design, High Voltage, MOSFET Consultant

Expertise

• IGBT (Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistor) inverter, control systems and switching power supply design.
• Legal support: Identify patent viability, conduct patent infringement studies, root cause and failure analysis.
• Low power design (with levels below 1MW) for battery and alternative energy applications.
• Electronic commercial design experience in high power motor drive - inverter design, industrial motor drive, (480VAC and lower) 3-phase high power UPS system.
• Lean design methodologies for maximum profit and fastest time-to-market, through clean streamlined design, proper analysis and coordinating focus on manufacturing.
• Alternative energy design and providing design guidance.

Power Electronic Design

• High power inverter designs (1KW - 1MW) using IGBT devices, comprehensive design knowledge of: Inverters, gate drive design, low inductance bus design, and high power snubber design.
• Power electronic device knowledge and design, with heavy focus on IGBT, MOSFET (Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor), and SCR, (Semiconductor) technologies, including 12 pulse rectifier and static switch designs.
• Magnetic design background, including line frequency and high frequency magnetics.
• Rotating magnetic machines, motor and generator applications, proper usage, and limitations.
• PWM waveforms effects on motor and transformer insulation systems.
• High voltage systems, including impulse/hipot insulation requirements and user safety.
• Power supply design (both linear and switching), using many of the standard switching topologies.
• Unique design and use knowledge of high and low power battery systems, up to 1MW at 540VDC.
• Power feed surge, (input) and load side, (output) fault issues and design requirements.
• Design and usage of devices: Flywheel batteries, microturbines, EDLC's, (Electric double-layer capacitor) and fuel cells.

Analog Digital and System Level Design

• Defining system level specifications - defining both technology and manufacturing targets.
• Identify catching user abuse scenarios and other non-intended operations.
• Analog and digital circuit design abilities.
• Trouble-shooting skills at: System, board, and component levels, including external interaction.
• Electronic noise, EMI, (Electromagnetic Interference) susceptibility, and mitigation tactics (PCB and system level).
• Tools: PSIM, PSPICE, MathCad, EASY5, and Electronic Workbench simulation.
• Agency standards: UL, IEC and VDE, (Underwriters Laboratories Inc., International Electrotechnical Commission, Verband der Elektrotechnik) and have designed products to meet their requirements.

Lean Design Methods

• Concept engineering, team idea generation, voice-of-customer brainstorming for marketing.
• Tolerance analysis (statistics).
• DFMA - Design for Manufacturing and Assembly.
• Process capability studies (core 6 Sigma metrics, Cp, Cpk process metrics).
• Gage R&R (Repeatability and Reproducibility) studies.
• Design FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis, and Manufacturing FMEA).
• Design of experiments.

Experience

Independent Consultant, 2004 - Present

• Market areas of designs varied from military, commercial products, medical devices, aviation systems, industrial designs and controls, and consumer appliances.
• Provided design guidance and specification development, root cause failure analysis, failure forensics, patent research, design testing, as well as other duties.
• Successfully implemented 6 Sigma/Lean Design projects ranging from front-end marketing to major DFM improvements, many resulting in multimillion dollar savings in manufacturing costs and warranty costs.
• Also worked on several low power designs for battery and energy harvesting applications, with power levels below 1MW.

Powerware/Invensys, 1998 - 2003

Senior Design Engineer, 2002 - 2003

• Coordinated with newly formed team merged from the former Powerware 3-phase group and the CATV group to develop a cost reduced and feature enhanced product upgrade in the 50-160KVA power range. Had become the sole engineering Lean Design / Black Belt instructor for Powerware.

Engineering Manager, 2000 - 2002

• Moved to a sister division of Powerware to lead in the role of engineering manager. Have been trained with the corporate Lean Design Blackbelt / 6 Sigma course, and have implemented the concepts into real life designs resulting in large savings and increased profit for the company.
• As manager, turned around a failing design group with low morale, and within 18 months have developed a strong functional team with several successful projects.
• Have become skilled at fostering team creativity while guiding teams through objective design selection.
• Also have performed other management duties such as engineering project management, employment, providing budgets, team coordination, and other administration responsibilities.

High Power UPS Design Engineer, 1998 - 1999

• Worked on a product redesign and cost reduction effort for the large UPS group.
• 750KVA power inverter section and gate driver design, with the next step to increase the output capability to 1MVA, which was tested and passed the requirements.
• Vastly increase the efficiency (
• 98%) over that of existing designs, helping reduce size and cost.
• Responsible for verifying that the 12-pulse SCR input stage and the IGBT output stage designs were thermally and electrically sound.
• Part of the team responsible for product qualification testing for UL and other agency tests.
• Provided design assistance for the smaller 20KVA UPS system with the Powerware Canada team.

Eurotherm Drives, Inc., England, Motor Drive Design Engineer, 1996 - 1998

• Developed and helped work into manufacturing a control board upgrade for improving drive performance and decreasing manufacturing costs, while also improving manufacturability.
• Produced power device tests to replace the IGBT's used in the main AC products in the 25HP - 90HP range.
• Assisted in releasing the product to manufacturing in England.
• Worked to develop the next generation AC product, which operated in the 220-240VAC and 400-500VAC range, met all required IEC/CE (International Electrotechnical Commission/ Conformance European) and UL (Underwriters Laboratories Inc.) standards in the U.S.A.

Pacific Scientific, Powertec Division, Motor Drive Design Engineer, 1994 - 1986

• Designed and tested Powertec's new IGBT based drives for industrial brushless DC motors, which ranged from 20HP to 300HP and used resolver feedback from the motor.
• Directly engineered many subsystems within the drive design, and selected power components for the inverter stage, capacitor banks, and the control electronics for each of the different frame sizes and performed measurements and tests to verify design.
• Promoted to the position of Engineering Manager to guide the engineering team through the remainder of the millennium product development.
• Engineering team consists of power electronic engineers, software engineers, CAD designers, and various technicians.
• Performed a leading role in the company ISO9000 certification program, by structuring procedures and implementing research and development documentation.

Square D Company, Switching Supply and Motor Drive Design Engineer, 1992 - 1994

• Worked as part of a team in a joint motor drive development with Telemecanique in France.
• Directly responsible for designing the power and interface board that contained control interface electronics.
• Additionally, designed the flyback switching supplies (Vin < 850VDC) to power the control and internal housekeeping electronics for the ATV66 drives in the 100HP to 400HP range.
• Other duties included writing product specifications, manuals, production documents, qualification tests, and other documentation.
• Worked closely with the UL, NEMA (National Electronic Manufactures Association, CSA (Compliance Safety, Accountability) and IEC standards to develop the product.
• Wrote and performed qualification tests for the product in the areas of EMI, radiation, voltage isolation, environmental, thermal, application specific, and user abuse endurance.

Education

• M.S.E.E. Electronic Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn, AL
• B.E.E. Electronic Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn, AL