I have 20+ years delivering electronic solutions for consumer products, medical devices and biotech applications. I am an electronic engineer experienced in delivering both hardware and software solutions with particular expertise in the design of instrumentation and control systems. As a leader, I can build teams, grow the capabilities and develop the processes required to deliver cutting edge products.
- Full name: James Alwyn Cameron Patterson
- Location: Cambridge, UK
- Nationality: British
- LinkedIn, GitHub
February 2023 to present
Prinicipal Consultant
Part of the Electronic Systems Capability serving the Health and Life Sciences market.
- Supported delivery of electronics for fluorescence instrumentation
- Subject matter expert in a technology landscaping project for life sciences client
- System architect for ECM device, using MBSE/SysML
- Lead Systems Architect/Engineer for next generation biotech diagnostics instrument
June 2022 to January 2023
Senior Staff Engineer (Thermal Control Guru)
Responsible for Evonetix' thermal control capabilities and integrating them across all groups and workstreams.
- Created technology roadmap for delivery of thermal control capability through to product launch
- Led development and roll-out of a reliable and robust thermal calibration capability
April 2017 to June 2022
Head of Electronics
Leading the development of electronic hardware and embedded control systems in order to support the development of Evonetix unique DNA synthesis technology.
- Grew team from 2 to 12 (peak)
- Created in house PCB CAD capability (Altium Designer)
- Led development of multi-channel AC thermal control electronics
- Established technical relationship with Analog Devices for ASIC development
- Led architecture development of "MVP" thermal control mixed-signal ASIC
- Modelled thermal systems and delta-sigma ADC structures using State-Space Representation (Python)
- Initiated strategic capability in using FPGAs for many-channel closed-loop control problems
- Championed combined feed-foward/feed-back control structures for thermal control applications
- Non-linear function approximation using PWL+ReLU for RTL controllers
- "Single-click" build process for Spartan 7 RTL + Microblaze MCU code
November 2015 to March 2017
Senior Engineer
Had a leading role in the development of electronics hardware for the Versius surgical robotic system.
- Created PCB CAD review and release procedures
- EMC compliance activities
- Electronics system design for 3D-HD endoscope
June 2012 to November 2015
Lead Electronics Engineer
Developed reference hardware design for shape memory alloy actuators used in Optical Image Stabilisation for mobile phone cameras, designed to be manufactured in millions per month.
- Reference PCB designs for 4-wire SMA actuator (8.1 x 4.5mm, 0.4mm pitch WLCSP, Cu-filled μ-vias)
- Control algorithm firmware development (C/C++) for multiple MCU targets (Cortex-M, RL78)
- Heuristic sensor data analytics to run online for controller parameter optimisation
- Non-linear function approximation using polynomials for efficient real-time control firmware
- Hysteresis compensator firmware developed based on Prandlt-Ishlinskii model
Early 2011 to March 2012
Research Associate
Developed sensor systems to assist elite athlete training in the run up to the London 2012 Olympics (ESPRIT).
- Force-sensitive resistor arrays for instrumented sports equipment
- 3G telemetry for real-time monitoring/tracking of athlete performance with modular sensor network interface
September 2004 to September 2008
Senior Engineer, Engineer
Delivered designs for a wide range of consumer and medical products on tight time-lines and budget constraints. Everything from implantable wireless devices to intelligent ironing boards.
- 1MHz precision UV LED driver
- Automatic gain control of LED intensity
- Transimpedance amplifiers
- FPGA-based data acquisition systems
- Numerous MCU-based sensor interfaces
- Bandgap cell for mixed-signal ASIC
- Logic library for analogue partition of mixed-signal ASIC
September 1999 to July 2000, summers '01-'03
Technology Scholar
Microcontroller programming and circuit debugging for electro-luminescent displays.
PhD, Pervasive Sensing, Department of Computing
Imperial College London, 2008-2012
Thesis titled: "A Photoplethysmography System Optimised for Wearable Pervasive Cardiac Monitoring". Involved finding a robust solution to optical noise issues that could be implemented in a minimal number of circuit components. The outcome was a pulse oximeter sensor that combined high-dynamic range noise rejection with embedded signal analysis and sub-10mW power consumption using only off-the-shelf components.
- Low-power, low noise integrating transimpedance amplifier
- Multi-mode optical noise rejection
- Embedded signal processing on Cortex-M3
- Current-conveyor based analogue front end for mixed-signal ASIC (TSMC 180nm)
MEng, 1st class, Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Imperial College London, 2000-2004
Course selection focussed on control engineering and analogue circuit design. Final year project researched temperature compensation for MEMS seismometer for use on Mars.
- Circuit Design
- Analogue front-ends
- Mixed-signal circuits and data converters
- Power management
- Digital circuits (logic, MCU, FPGA, communications)
- Mixed-signal ASIC
- PCB CAD: Altium Designer (design entry, component library management, data release)
- Software Capabilities
- Microcontrollers (C/C++, PIC, AVR, ARM, Microblaze, RL78)
- Data collection and analysis (HDF5, Arrow/Parquet + Rust)
- Database integration (SQLite, MariaDB, Python, Altium Designer)
- Test Driven Development (VHDL, Python, Docker)
- Control Systems
- Continuous-time implementation in analogue circuits
- Discrete-time implementation on MCUs and FPGAs
- Non-linearity compensation (feedback linearisation)
- Hysteresis compensation (Prandtl-Ishlinskii)
- Signal Processing
- Numerical modelling (e.g. ODEs - Python, MATLAB, Julia)
- Time-domain filtering (IIR, FIR, LWDF)
- Non-stationary signal analysis
- Digital image processing
- Implementation on analogue circuits, MCU firmware and FPGA RTL
- Systems Engineering/Product Development
- Problem definition/requirements capture
- Complete product architecture
Growing up in Texas made me obsessed with slow & low barbecue which I exercise on my Green Mountain Grills Trek pellet smoker. I'm a 3rd generation biker and keep looking for excuses to get back into trackdays but keep myself entertained either commuting or touring with mates on my BMW R1200 RS.