David Fifield
408.209.7373
Skills:
- RF circuitry, board layout, system level, and antenna design and test - LNA, PA, mixer, filter, PLL, attenuator, test equipment,
- RF Engineering Design, customer facing Applications Engineering, Pre-Sales Engineering, Field Applications
- RF desense/interference prevention/cure, specifically for IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be through WiFi 7, GPS, and GSM/CDMA/WCDMA/4G-LTE/5G-NR cellular wireless
- Small (internal) and large (external) PIFA/monopole/narrowband/wideband/omni/gain antenna design, simulation, evaluation, and test/measurement
- RF/microwave/analog design and simulation: CST Microwave Studio 3D-EM, HFSS, Momentum, Microcap, AWR Microwave Office, Agilent ADS
- Schematic capture (OrCAD, Concept, others) - PCB Layout (Allegro, OrCAD, PADS/Power PCB), Gerber tools
- BOM management (Arena), vendor management (price, negotiating, delivery/lead time, and budgeting)
- DFM and other volume production design/test requirements such as EFFA\
- Hands-on compliance testing, certification, and problem solving (ingress/egress, FCC/CE radiated and conducted emissions, Telecom etc.)
- IEEE 802.3 10/100/1000Mbps standards (I was a contributor to these standards), plus 2.5G/10G Ethernet, PoE, HPNA 2.0, and HomePlug
Experience:
March 2023 - Present – Hardware Design Consultant, RF Engineering Design, Portland, Oregon
Design and initial prototyping for a range of low-noise EMC chamber test equipment and accessories to make EMC testing easier/cheaper.
March 2020 - March 2023 – Senior Principal RF Hardware Engineer, Palo Alto Networks Inc., Santa Clara, California
For project “OKYO Garde”, I did the schematic design, RF design, antenna design, PCB layout, and followed through to production and test. This was a WiFi 6 Tri-band router with mesh for secure home use, for the (now defunct) Consumer Products Division. More recently, I have been involved in the design of a series of high-performance secure New Generation Fire Wall (NGFW) products, and defined the WiFi and cellular 5G-NR requirements for a new low-end NGFW series of products. I worked remotely using Zoom from my home in Milwaukie (Portland, OR).
April 2019 to February 2020 – RF Engineer, Essential Products, Palo Alto, California
Redesigned almost all of the GEM smartphone’s RF circuitry and antennas to ensure it would work properly with good power output and outstanding sensitivity with no discernable desense issues. The first factory build (EVT1) proved the RF design worked perfectly. I made several trips to Taiwan to work directly with the JDM vendors. Unfortunately, the company closed down on 2/12/20 due to lack of interest in the product.
April 2016 to February 2019 – Lead RF Desense Engineer, Google Inc., Mountain View, California
Working with many diverse hardware teams to find and fix RF desense issues. Mentoring junior engineers to ensure products are designed right first time. I found and fixed many issues with USB, camera, switching power regulator noise, and DDR memory circuitry on several Pixel phone and Chromebook designs.
April 2014 to January 2016 – RF Hardware Engineer, GoPro Inc., San Mateo, California
Defined, designed, and tested/verified the WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS interfaces for the Hero 4 and 5 camera series.
March 2012 to April 2014 – iPhone RF Engineer, Apple Inc., Cupertino, California
Directly Responsible Individual for WLAN/BT module design, implementation (with 3rd party vendors), and test through mass production for iPhones and iPads. I made many trips to do production line setup and DVT work on-site at the JDM’s in Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Souzhou in China.
January 2010 to January 2012 - Staff Engineer, Hardware Engineering - Aruba Networks Inc., Sunnyvale, California
Designing enterprise class WLAN Access Points, including internal antennas and high performance interference-immune WLAN radio cards. Note, after I left Aruba, I took a 1.5 month long vacation (to New Zealand) before starting work at Apple.
January 2009 to December 2009 - Principal Hardware Applications Engineer - Gigle Semiconductor, Inc., Redwood City, California
Worked on custom chip and software driver field performance test and evaluation, designed/built custom lab test equipment, and produced reference designs for a range of HomePlug AV and high-speed (RF) proprietary digital communications devices.
July 2007 to January 2009 - Principal RF Engineer - Aerohive Networks Inc., Santa Clara, California
Designed IEEE802.11n WLAN Access Points for the enterprise market place (Hive AP-340 and Hive AP-320) and managed these designs through certification and on into production in Taiwan. My access point designs had many novel features including (now patented I believe) “Smart PoE”.
June 2005 to July 2007 - Principal Engineer - Amalfi Semiconductor, Los Gatos, California
Responsible for developing and setting up a complete GSM/EGSM/PCS/DCS dual-band cell phone PA evaluation and DVT RF test laboratory consisting of multiple test stations, with GPIB automation, custom software, thermal chamber, Maury Automated Tuner integration, and noise power test setup.
October 2002 to June 2005 - Principal Engineer - Broadcom Corporation, Mobile and WLAN Division, Sunnyvale, California
Designed all of the RF front-ends for Broadcom's first IEEE 802.11b/g WLAN products (LNA, PA, power detectors) and over the next several years, designed many customer reference board products including WLAN/Bluetooth SD modules. Together with Skyworks, SiGe, and Murata, I engineered the world’s first 802.11a/b/g Front-End Module. I was Broadcom's main WLAN applications interface to Apple Computer for several years, working very closely with their product design team on an almost daily basis to bring products like the Airport/Airport Extreme to market. I extensively researched WLAN antenna design, and designed and built a small 3-D antenna test range facility.
May 1999 to October 2002 - Marketing Applications Manager - Broadcom Corporation, Home Networking Business Unit, Sunnyvale, California
I managed the applications group a few months prior to our acquisition by Broadcom. I hired two excellent applications engineers. The three of us supported over 120 Home Phone-Line Networking Alliance (HPNA 2.0) customers until the demise of HPNA in 2002.
August 1998 to May 1999 (when Epigram was acquired by Broadcom) - Senior Applications Engineer - Epigram Inc., Sunnyvale, California
Helped design and implement Epigram's HPNA 2.0 customer demonstration facility (a simulated home). I was responsible for all technical and logistical aspects of the HPNA 2.0 field trials in over 100 homes locally. Attended and contributed to most of the HPNA 2.0 technical group meetings. I worked on systems and chip evaluation board design and bring-up alongside the chip design engineering team.
August 1997 to August 1998 - Hardware Consulting Engineer - 3Com Corporation, OEM Products Division, Santa Clara, California
Was the first applications engineer in 3Com's OEM Products Division, with responsibility for generating the collateral needed to bring the Hurricane and Tornado Ethernet Controller products to the OEM market (for Dell, IBM, etc.).
August 1992 to August 1997 - Applications Manager - National Semiconductor Corporation, LAN Division/Advanced Networks, Santa Clara, California
Moved to the LAN Division in the USA and was promoted to Applications Manager, responsible for Ethernet devices. During my time at National, I attended and contributed to IEEE 802.3 and 802.12 meetings for 10BASE-T, VG-AnyLAN, 100BASE-T, and 1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet.
In late 1992 through early 1993, I wrote HTML code and integrated it with HTTP server code to run on an early laptop computer in order to put a National Semiconductor homepage with news on the internet for the 1993 spring Interop Show in Atlanta. This was website number 92 on the web according to the listing position on the first ever Yahoo! Webpage (which at the time was just a single page that listed all the known websites in the world).
August 1988 to August 1992 - Applications Engineer 1 - National Semiconductor (UK) Ltd., European Headquarters, Swindon, England
Was responsible for providing product line applications support for all of Europe and Israel for the following products: Bi-Phase Communications Processors, Graphics Chipsets, Ethernet Controllers/Transceivers, and FDDI chipsets. Additionally, I helped the Linear, Interface, and Peripheral groups solve complex applications issues on many occasions.
January 1982 to August 1988 - Senior Engineer - Marconi Radar Systems Ltd., Display and Data Handling Laboratories, Chelmsford, England
Worked in the design and development lab on a multiple i186 and DSP56001 based voice communications module for project UKADGE.
August 1979 to January 1982 - Installation Engineer 1 - Marconi Radar Systems Ltd., Field Services Department, Sultanate-of-Oman
Installed and maintained 3D radar systems for the Sultan of Oman's Air Force in Oman.
September 1975 to August 1979 - Student Apprentice - Marconi Radar Systems Ltd., Chelmsford, England and Southampton University
Was a sponsored student on an IEE sanctioned thick sandwich course, doing on-the-job training in many corporate departments, plus secondments at the Antenna Research Department, Marconi Research Center (for the first summer), and with the Field Services Department at a local test site (for the second summer) while attending Southampton University.
Formal Education:
Attended Hreod Burna Comprehensive School (High School equivalent) in Swindon, England, where I obtained good ‘O’ and ‘A’ level exam passes in many subjects. I attended Southampton University, England, from 1976 to 1979 where I graduated (in July 1979) with an Honors Degree in Electronic Engineering with communications specialization options - my official title is Bachelor of Science with Honors (B.Sc. Hons.).
Patents:
US Patent 5,886,688 - "Integrated Solar Panel and LCD for Portable Computer or the like" - joint inventor - assigned to National Semiconductor Corporation US Patent 7,130,670 - "Wireless Network Card with Antenna Selection Option" - sole inventor - assigned to Broadcom Corporation
US Patent 7,190,974 - "Shared Antenna Control" - joint inventor - assigned to Broadcom Corporation
US Patent 7,356,309 - "Directional Coupler for Communication System" - sole inventor - assigned to Broadcom Corporation
US Patent 7,406,344 - "Wireless Network Card with Antenna Selection Option" - sole inventor - assigned to Broadcom Corporation
US Patent 7,493,152 - "Integrated Circuit Incorporating Antennas" - sole inventor - assigned to Broadcom Corporation
US Patent 7,920,900 - "Shared Antenna Control" - joint inventor - assigned to Broadcom Corporation
US Patent Application 20020174423 "Apparatus for Transporting Home Networking Frame-Based Communications Signals Over Coaxial Cable" - joint inventor - assigned to Broadcom Corporation
US Patent Application 20040187156 "Transporting Home Networking Frame-Based Communication Signals Over Coaxial Cables" - joint inventor - assigned to Broadcom Corporation
US Patent Application 200502121708 "Antenna Configuration for Wireless Communication Device" sole inventor - assigned to Broadcom Corporation
Travel:
Local, national or international travel for work is acceptable for around 10 - 20% of the time.
Other:
Officially a Chartered Engineer (C.Eng. MIEE) although the IEE is long since defunct.
Have a clean/current Oregon driving license for car and motorcycle.
Have dual-citizenship – British and USA – I have two passports.
Hold an extra class amateur radio license, callsign AD6A and am an avid microwaver.
Compose and record my own music in my state-of-the-art home studio.
Make acoustic steel-string guitars, classical guitars, ukuleles (cambrianguitars.com) and other wood art (daveswoodenwonders.com)