Prasidh R

Doctorate and nineteen years of experience in design and development of RF Systems and modules for wireless communications and instrumentation. Knowledgeable in RF and DSP theories with over fifteen years of industrial experience, including five years of technical leadership followed by four years of academic research. Architectural knowledge of RF test and measuring equipment such as Anechoic Chamber, Spectrum and Network Analyzers, Vector Signal Generators and Analyzers.

Experienced in designing RF systems such as transmitters, receivers, transceivers and modules such as amplifiers, oscillators, synthesizers, RF passives, Antennas and microcontroller-based system design for defence, medical and large volume commercial applications with technical leadership. Strong analytical, communication, collaboration, problem solving & team building skills with proficiency at grasping new technical concepts quickly and utilize the same in a productive manner. 

A senior member of IEEE.

Filed 5 US patent applications and 2 UK patent applications as a doctoral researcher with National University of Ireland, Maynooth. 

Qualcomm, Bangalore (India)

From Dec 2020 till date

Senior Staff RF System Engineer (On par with Principal Engineer in hierarchy)

Skill Highlights: Digital Modulation and Demodulation Techniques, Wideband Calibration, Microwave Hardware Design, Antennas and Beamforming

Work Undertaken:

1. System level receiver architecture for sub-6 GHz transceivers for wearables and femtocells.
2. System level design of digitally assisted linearization of power amplifiers in transmitters for sub-6 GHz femtocells.
3. Filed a patent application for high efficiency mm-wave transmitters through a novel combining scheme.
4. Member of RF Patent Review Board; responsible for reviewing invention disclosures, preparing claim charts mapping potential infringements of Qualcomm’s IP, teardown analysis, mitigation of invalidation of claims in Qualcomm’s IP related to RF circuits, antennas and beamforming subsystems.
5.  Filed an invention disclosure for mitigation of strong interferences through spatial nulls.

Benetel Ltd., Dublin

From Jan 2020 to Nov 2020

Senior RF Engineer

Skill Highlights: Digital Modulation and Demodulation Techniques, Wideband Calibration, Microwave Hardware Design, Antennas and Beamforming

Work Undertaken:

1. Architecture of Ka-Band beamforming radio unit (RU) technology demonstrator for European Commission funded project 5G GaN2
2. Consultancy on active antenna array and beamforming RU architecture for a sub-6 GHz solution for a US based customer.

National University of Ireland, Maynooth

From Nov 2015 to Nov 2019

Doctoral Researcher pursuing PhD in Electronic Engineering

Skill Highlights: Digital Modulation and Demodulation Techniques, Wideband Calibration, Microwave Hardware Design, Antennas and Beamforming.

Thesis Title: Digitally Assisted Transmitter Enhancement Techniques for Millimeterwave Radio Systems

Area of focus: Analogue and Digital Co-design 

Work Undertaken and Publications as first author:

i)          Frequency Interleaved Modulators to Support Channel Bonding in Satellite Communications: This was presented at the RIA Colloquium RIA Research Colloquium: Communications and Radio Science for a Smarter World, March 2017. ­ A technique to generate wideband modulated signals using relatively narrow band modulators by interleaving them in frequency domain is presented.

ii)         Digitally Assisted Wideband Compensation of Parallel RF Signal Paths in a Transmitter: This paper was presented at the 91st ARFTG Microwave Measurement Conference (Co-located with International Microwave Symposium 2018) at Philadelphia on 15 Jun 2018. 

iii) Wideband Interleaved Vector Modulators for 5G Wireless Communications: This paper was presented at the conference ‘IMWS-5G’ (International Microwave Workshop Series – 5G) held in Dublin on 30 Aug 2018. 

iv)        A Novel Physical Layer Encryption Scheme to Counter Eavesdroppers in Wireless Communications: This was presented at the flagship conference IEEE-ICECS 2018 held at Bordeaux France between 09 Dec 2018 and 12 Dec 2018. 

v) A Novel Physical Layer Encryption Scheme with PAPR Reduction based on Channel and Hardware Responses. 

vi) Spatially Combined Wideband Interleaved Transmitter: This paper was been presented at the conference EuCNC 2019 co-located with Global 5G event held at Valencia, Spain between 18th to 21st June 2019.

Pace Micro Technology, India (Now Acquired by Commscope) 

From Oct 2009 to Aug 2015

Technical Leader (RF Design)

Skill Highlights: DVB-C, DVB-S, WiFi PHY, EMI/EMC, RF Front End design, Full Band Capture

         Key role entails leading a team of RF engineers for large volume products with the following responsibilities

1) Formulation of Product Requirement Specifications for the RF subsystem on the basis of customer requirements with an eye on the probability of reusing the design for other potential customers.

2)         Cost effective design of RF Receive chain for satellite video receivers consisting of the LNA, BALUN, Diplexer, tuner and demodulator circuits and RF interface circuits for WiFi modules which are cost optimized for the application.

3)         Design of boards for the RF subsystem incorporating the principles of DFT and DFM and maximizing the use of Microstrip components to keep the BOM cost low with special attention paid to parasitic EMI effects.

4) Provide consultation to other hardware teams and outsourcing partners on potential EMI issues, their mitigation and suggest cost effective solutions to the EMI issues encountered including PCB layout strategies, selection of components and validation methodologies for the solutions provided.

5)         Characterization of RF components and evaluation of SOCs from vendors periodically and design of the corresponding RF subsystem to enhance project preparedness. 

5) Authoring Acceptance Test Procedures for RF sub-systems.

6)         Lead and supervise evaluation of the performance as per the relevant DVB and WLAN standards both internally and with outsourcing partners.

7) Field trials and cost-effective design enhancement.

            Jointly responsible for EMI/EMC performance of the overall receiver and for commissioning and maintenance of Wireless Test facility (Anechoic Chamber). 

Achievements:

1. My design for an Automated RF Test platform is being refined for IP submission.

1. There has been “zero” field return of deployed units owing to non-compliance of RF subsystems in the projects handled by me.

1. Awarded on several occasions for technical excellence and customer satisfaction.

General Electric, Bangalore from Oct 2007 to Oct 2009.

Senior Design Engineer

• Key role entails

1. Design of on-board pre-amplifier (Low Noise Amplifier) circuits for MRI scanners.
2. System level integration of RF coils for MR (Magnetic Resonance) Applications.
3. Design of transmission and reception system for wireless acquisition and transmission of MRI data (Patent granted).
4. Design of “In-application Digitally Tuneable RF Coils” (Patent Published).
5. Design of integrated test platform for measurement of critical safety and operational RF parameters (Patent Published).
6. QA focal point for the team.

Achievements:

i)            An application for a patent for “System and method for wireless communication of magnetic resonance data” was filed. The design allowed simultaneous real time acquisition and transmission of MR data from 16 channels through Frequency Division Multiplexing. The system can be scaled up to accommodate more channels without affecting the existing functionality. The system achieved extended image quality by minimizing the effects of ghosting, standing waves, and inter-channel interference and amplitude distortions.

ii)                Obtained a defensive publication for an ultra-wide dynamic range RF receiver that supports a dynamic range up to 120 dB without the use of the noisy VGA blocks and operates with a cascaded noise figure less than 1 dB.

iii)          An application for a patent was filed for “In Application Digitally Tuneable RF Coils” that allows an RF coil to be fine tuned digitally while in a scanner as per the application’s bandwidth requirements and as per the magnetic field strength of the scanner. 

iv) An application for a patent has been filed for “Apparatus for automatically testing and tuning radio frequency coil” for measurement and monitoring of critical safety and operational RF parameters of an MRI system. This may be accessed at the link.

M/s United Systems Engineers (P) Ltd.,                                                                                                     Jul 2004          to Sep 2007

(The firm was a contractor for RF systems and subsystems to Indian defence and space establishments and was a strategic partner of “Aeronautical Development Establishment” in the development of the “Pilot less Target Aircraft, Lakshya”.)

Senior RF Engineer

• Key role entails

-      Designing and developing RF Systems and Subsystems for Defence and Space Applications including circuit design, board design, programming in C.

-   Conducting Tests and finalizing product parameters such as sensitivity, RF power and frequency at the operational site.

-      Managing various technical aspects like project documentation, evaluation of RF components,                                         system design & integration, coding of modules, monitoring critical paths & taking appropriate                                       actions.

-   Evaluation of the systems and subsystems at defence test fields and facilities under various operating conditions in co-ordination scientific/technical officers from the customer organization.

-      Ensuring quality

Products Designed and Developed (LF to X Band): 

-      RF frontend subsystems for Transmitters, Receivers, Transceivers and RF Phase Shifters

-      RF Amplifiers, PLL Based Frequency Synthesizers with amplitude and frequency modulation.

-   Mixers and Frequency Multipliers, Filters, Hybrid Couplers, Frequency Counters and Signal Analyzer Modules

-   RF Oscillators, Built In Test Equipment (BITE) for RF Systems (Microcontroller based acquisition, evaluation and display of critical RF parameters).

Technical Skill Set

Programming Languages          :           C (proficient), MATLAB, 8051 ASSEMBLY, PIC ASSEMBLY                    

EDA Tools                      :    ANSOFT Designer (RF), APPCAD, Keysight ADS, Mentor Graphics PCB Suite, EM PRO, Ansys HFSS

Other software               : MS Office, DOORS

• PhD (Millimetre Wave Radio Systems) from National University of Ireland, Maynooth in 2020