Gav's World : My CV

Curriculum Vitae for Gavin Cameron

BSc Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Address available on request

Profile

I have spent many years in the military-aerospace and medical industries designing and integrating electronics products to high reliability standards. I am keen to learn new skills and share my own skills with others. I am very innovative and can work independently or as part of a team. I have a very high level of IT skills that are required for engineering tasks.

Key Skills

Programmable Logic Device Design
- VHDL for design and verification (Tools: HDL Designer, Ease, Modelsim)
- FPGA / CPLD Synthesis (Tools: Precision Synthesis, Xilinx Place and Route, Microsemi Libero SoC)
Printed Circuit Board Design
- Schematic Capture (Tools: Mentor Graphics, Altium Designer)
- PCB Layout (Tools: Mentor Graphics, Altium Designer)
- PLD pin-out optimisation (Tools: Mentor Graphics)
- JTAG boundary scan for PCB design proving (Tools: JTAG Technologies)
- ExpressPCB for simple and quick test boards
Software
- C, Bash, TCL, PHP
Requirements capture / tracing (Tools: IBM Rational DOORS, Aligned Elements)
Test and Debugging
- Logic Analysers, Spectrum Analysers, Oscilloscopes, Pattern Generators, In-Circuit Emulators
Also have experience with
- Various micro-controllers
- Device programmers
- Altera CPLDs
- PALs (such as the 22V10)
- Abel

Career History

January 2016 to present : Emblation

Forrester Lodge, Inglewood, Alloa, Clackmannanshire, FK10 2HU.

Principal Hardware Engineer

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.

In this role I am responsible for:
- Requirements capture (using Aligned Elements):
  - Flowing customer requirements down to generator, module and FPGA firmware levels.
- Verification protocols on all levels of requirements.
- Interface Control Documents.
- Firmware development plans.
- Schematic capture and PCB layout of 5 modules 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 modules.
- Verification testing of modules 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.

September 1992 to December 2015 : Selex ES

(now called Leonardo; formerly GEC Ferranti when I started)
2 Crewe Road North, Edinburgh, Midlothian, EH5 2XS.

Principal Hardware Engineer

I was the lead engineer and design authority for a system communications module for the Captor Dual Capability 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 designed one of the high speed PCBs and supervised 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 Rational 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 of my previously designed FPGA components are used within the master FPGA on board the module.

Senior Hardware Engineer

In this role, I designed one half of the predecessor to the module that I latterly designed, 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

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.

Trainee Engineer

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.

Other Skills

I have used a combination of C and Bourne shell / TCL scripting to automate design building, analysing test data and data parsing. C and Assembler have been used to perform fault finding tests on faulty processor units.
I am very experienced with PHP, (X)HTML, XML and CSS.
I have a very good knowledge of technical drawings and as such have designed various bespoke test fixtures and enclosures, as well as being an invaluable contributor to mechanical designs.
I have mentored several junior engineers in design philosophy and the tools required to perform the task in hand.

Specialist Training

Altium courses: Altium Designer Essentials.
Doulos courses: Xilinx Comprehensive PlanAhead Design Techniques; Xilinx Embedded Open-Source Linux Development; Xilinx Embedded Systems Development; Expert VHDL; Xilinx Tech Class.
Mentor Graphics courses: DX Designer for Expedition PCB Flow; IO Designer; High Speed Electrical Design Using IS; Minimising EMI Through PBC Design.
Analytical Edge courses: Essential High-speed PCB Design for Signal Integrity; PCB Design at RF – multi Gigabit Transmission, EMI Control, and PCB Materials.
Academy of Professional Transport Training courses: Basic Operator Training; Slinging And Lifting.

Other Achievements / Interests

I have installed Linux on several company PCs to provide invaluable services like project Wikis and utility scripts, as well as web sites (using custom written software in PHP) for various work based social groups: curry club, darts, badminton club and others.
I managed to raise just over £5k growing ridiculous moustaches for testicular and prostate cancer research and won the on-line tache wars one year.
I have recently taken up SCUBA diving and have over 50 dives logged in Scotland and Australia.
I am a member of Stirling and Bridge of Allan Round Table, having great nights out and raising funds for [mainly local] charities and good causes.
I am a geek of technology and have cabled the whole house for gigabit networking – although my 12 Raspberry Pi computers don’t run that fast!
I have set up various websites for myself and other parties.
I am a keen DIYer and have done a lot of work on the house and cars.