Electrical Engineer Design

** ******** ** . **** ****, NY *****

PHONE 612-***-**** . EMAIL: ********@***.***

CUONG THAI

SUMMARY

MSEE with 4+ years experience in Analog and Digital design. Involved in

all phases of product development from initial conceptual stage to final

release. Active DoD Secret Clearance (05/2010).

STRENGTHS

. Hardware Design: Switch Mode Power Supply (Buck, Boost, Buck-Boost), A/D

converter, D/A converter, LDO Linear Power Supply, Soft Start, Current

Limiter, Fly Back, Battery Management, LED driver.

. Embedded Design: Implement C targeting Microchip PIC18F97J60, Microchip

PIC24HJ64, Cypress CY7C68013A, and STMicro STR32F103.

. FPGA Design: Implement RTL VHDL/Verilog targeting Xilinx Spartan 2, and 3

(IP cores integrating with fast & resource-efficient coding).

. Circuit Design: Use ORCAD suite in designing low noise, mixed-signal

circuits from schematic capture to creating footprint, and board layout.

. Debug Tools: Use lab instruments including Logic Analyzer,

Oscilloscopes, and Spectrum Analyzer for hardware debugging and testing.

. System Interface: RS-232, USB 2.0, Ethernet, I2C, SPI.

. EDA Tools: Xilinx ISE, Keil, MPLAB.

EDUCATION & AFFILIATIONS

. Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (2006, University of

Minnesota, GPA: 3.7/4.0), Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering

(2003, University of Minnesota, GPA: 3.0/4.0).

. Member: IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers).

WORK EXPERIENCE

(Jul.2010- Present) Electrical Engineer, System Tek, Melville NY.

(Contractor to Motorola, Holtsville, NY).

Linear Barcode Scanner: Core member of design team in Linear Imager

Barcode Scanner project. Reviewed current manufactured product to identify

cost reduction opportunities and implement changes. Extensively performed

reverse engineering and system analysis on various products.

. Designed a low cost and fast boost converter LED driver which could drive

a series of two identical LEDs (each LED had current rating of 100 mA and

voltage rating of 2.65 V) from a 3.3 V power supply. This driver unit

provided a steady current within 0.2 ms (whereas at 1.2 ms in previous

design), reducing overall decode time and resulting in significant saving

(20 cents instead of $1.5 per unit).

. Designed a low cost and efficient battery switch unit which allowed a

smooth switch between battery and cradle power. Used a spare opamp (LMV

324) in system as a comparator to decide which source (battery and

cradle) to be used. The key efforts were minimizing crosstalk between two

power sources and maintaining a constant current for the load. Cut cost

from $1.23 cents to 10 cents per unit.

Long Range Barcode Scanner: Involved in the final phase of the project.

Studied and analyzed current system for problems, and helped improve

performance.

. Investigated on Long Range Barcode Scanner horizontal banding issue.

Figured out that a sneak current, during LED illumination, created

unstable ADC references in horizontal direction. Suggested layout

modification to Layout Engineer. Improved image frame rate up to 50% and

reduced EMI to 30%.

. Verified functionalities and behaviors of all modules such as Battery

management, LED driver, Laser driver, CMOS image sensor, and

accelerometer. Ensured that all modules worked as design specifications.

Analyzed, recorded and documented electrical characteristics (voltage,

current, and timing profiles) for future reference.

(Oct.2007- Jul.2010) Electrical Engineer, Praxis Inc, Alexandria VA.

(Contractor to the Naval Research Lab-High Energy Space Environment

Division, Washington, DC).

Advanced Compton Telescope (ACT): Contributed as a core member. Worked with

the Naval Research Lab scientists to build high level energy Gamma Ray

Tracking System from initial concept to final system (protocol, coding,

board layout, and test).

. Designed a low noise and mix-signal circuit control system with Xilinx

FPGA (Spartan 3), custom ASIC and Cypress USB 2.0 (CY7C68013A) to detect

Gamma Ray. The key performance was data acquisition efficiency by

focusing on background noise rejection. In this system, a main mother

board was used to control and acquire data from 4 plug-in daughter boards-

each with 9 Silicon Detectors-via PCI protocol for detecting energy,

direction and angular distribution of Gamma Ray based on Compton

Scattering theory.

. Designed programmable high voltage DC-DC converter (100mW) to provide

high voltage bias for Silicon Detectors. This power supply is a consisted

of a regular Boost converter (SC4501), and a custom build Fly Back. Using

27 V source from Boost converter, this resonant (low loss, low EMI) Fly

Back converter with control feedback, generated a steady voltage output

from 1 V to 800 V. This design eased the need of an expensive and bulky

vendor power supply.

. Participated in a collaborative project with Washington University of St.

Louis Research Group in an effort of integrating two different radiation

detection systems (Silicon/48 MHz/PC and Cadmium Zinc/100 MHz/Linux) to

create a single synchronized system. Using merging data from two

different families of Gamma Ray Detectors (Silicon versus Cadmium Zinc),

this integrated system gave an extra dimension view in investigating on

Compton Scattering theory.

Mobile Imaging and Spectroscopic Threat Identification (MISTI): A Home Land

Security project to detect sources of nuclear materials in urban

environment. Helped build system communication and temperature control

panel.

. Designed a battery operated Ethernet (T-10) tracking module using a

Microchip PIC18F97J60, running at 2 different modes: sleep (32 KHz, 0.050

mA) and active (25 MHz, 20 mA). This interface module helped establish

tracking synchronization from remote Radiation Detectors in different

locations.

. In charge of designing an programmable feedback circuit board to control

temperature of cooling valves for an array of 32 Sodium Iodide Detectors,

providing adjustable and steady temperature settings (-20 to -40 degrees

Celsius). This board was consisted of a constant voltage feedback module

with PIC24HJ64 and temperature sensors. Simplicity, robustness and

delivery time played critical factor in shaping this design.

(Nov.2004-Sep.2005) Test Specialist, HP/Color Span, Eden Prairie MN.

Worked with R/D: Provided a solid support for design team. Performed test

procedures and recommend changes or improvements to test engineer.

. Built prototype and assisted in new board startup. Loaded code into FPGA

(Altera Cyclone 3) and microcontroller (Freescale 68HC12).

. Ran temperature stress/failure, ESD, EMI, and Thermal test on new

products. Conducted benchmarking and collecting data. Recorded and

reported on any unusual behaviors if occurred.

Production Line: Worked on final stage of production with minimum

supervision. Test and troubleshoot electronic modules to component level.

. Performed quality test and benchmarking on new printer performance issues

(pixel/color quality, pump, motor, print head, photo-diode, control

panel).

. In charge of diagnosis and troubleshooting of used printer, including

installed/upgraded software, hardware, and component-level

troubleshooting.

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