Resume of  David A. Johnson, P.E.
David A. Johnson, PE     -   DiscoverCircuits.com
6601 County Road 6410    Lubbock, TX  79416-9717
Phone:  806-368-7747 (as of June 2011) Central Time Zone          email: Dave Johnson

• Managing mechanical, electrical and software engineers. 
• Supervising technicians, CAD operators, assembly workers and subcontractors.
• Interfacing with customers while supporting marketing and sales departments.   
• Generating product definitions and specifications.  
• Researching new technologies and conducting proof of concept experiments.  
• Describing microprocessor operations, interface and controls.   
• Defining project goals and objectives.    
• Estimating project cost and managing project budget.   
• Planning manpower needs, interviewing and hiring necessary personnel.   
• Prioritizing, delegating and scheduling project tasks.  
• Assisting engineers with design problems, prototype construction and testing.  
• Overseeing U.L, CSA and FCC acceptance testing.  
• Writing progress reports and conducting product demonstrations.   
• Generating patent applications. 
• Skilled at taking a product from concept to mass production.  

• Areas of expertise include analog circuit design, electro optics, optical communications, optical sensors, switch mode and linear power supplies, amplifiers, instrumentation sensors, signal generators, signal processors and control systems.
• Also defining microcomputer interface, operations and controls.
• Expert with the use of most electronics laboratory equipment.
• Skilled at circuit component selection (based on cost, performance and availability), schematic generation using Orcad and Accel EDA CAD programs, breadboard construction, testing and troubleshooting.
• In addition, very familiar with printed circuit board design procedures and PCB fabrication requirements.
• Expert at modifying existing products for special needs and completing applications engineering tasks.
• Have personally designed, built and tested thousands of circuits.

• University of Idaho, Bachelor of Science Degree, EE
• Colorado Registered Professional Engineer
• Holds eight patents with two more patents pending.

• Helped develop a complete video interactive archery/firearm shooting range system.   System projected moving targets onto a fabric screen using a computer, laser disk player and video projector. Reflector tipped arrows and an infrared CCD camera determined where the arrows hit the target. Also developed a similar shooting range system that used infrared laser equipped pistols, rifles and shotguns. Systems launched laser light pulses at screen targets instead of arrows. 500+ installations now installed and operating. Wrote detailed descriptions for a patent application on the techniques used. Received US patent #5,566,951 with one US patent pending.

• Conducted research and designed circuits to detect, count and size air bubbles in blood using ultrasound techniques. Bubbles with volumes less than 1 nanoliter were detectable. Circuit used in a kidney dialysis machine. Designed and built a portable battery powered bubble monitor used by the company's sales force to show potential buyers the bubble-free nature of the disposable dialysis machine tubing sets. Wrote circuit descriptions for a patent application on the bubble detector system.  Received US patent #5,394,732, Japan patent #2823513 and European patent pending.

• Chief designer of a new RFID card reader that cost about one half the reader it replaced. Developed a method to detect nearby RFID cards using super low power techniques for a battery powered RFID card reader used in security door locks (2 patents pending).
  

• Published many articles and circuits in EDN, Electronic Design, Popular Electronics and Midnight Engineering magazines. Produced an extensive 10MB Internet web site that promotes consulting engineering services. The site also has a 250+ page e-zine of useful information on general science, technology, creativity, science experiments, inventing and electro optics.

• Developed several families of touch activated AC and DC electronic switches. Switches were mostly used to control lights, doors and intercoms in jail cells. Switches had to survive severe abuse without requiring replacement. Designed and developed a complete jail door control and monitoring system for Colorado Arapahoe County jail as well as several other jails in Texas, Florida, New York and California. Sent the line of products through CSA, CKC and UL safety testing programs. Developed another line of very low power DC capacitance proximity switches. One switch operates up to 5 years on a single 1.5v button battery.

• Designed, built and successfully demonstrated an optical through the air communications link with a range of 6 miles. Also demonstrated the feasibility of using clouds as large light pulse reflectors. In addition, conducted tests on atmospheric attenuation of light pulses under various weather conditions. Proposed methods for a 40 mile telemetry link using a xenon flash light source. Proposed uses for nitrogen spark light sources. Uses included optical radar and long range distance measurements. Proposed a wide area optical information broadcasting system that would cover an entire metropolitan area with high speed data services.

• Designed and developed several new consumer products, including cordless telephones, combustible gas detectors, smoke detectors, backup alarms, anti-carjacking alarms, coin operated panorama telescopes and motion intrusion alarms. The motion alarm worked on the basis of monitoring the disturbance of the earth's natural electric field. Wrote patent papers on the intrusion alarm system.

• Solved a large number of engineering, industrial and medical instrumentation problems for a variety of companies. Designed and built many custom test stations and fixtures.   Advised many companies on ways to reduce manufacturing cost and improve quality.   Led brainstorm sessions to produce new product ideas and new applications for existing products.

• Constructed many special test stations and special instruments for explosive devices, including initiator testers for Ford and GM airbags. Designed and constructed explosive flash detector/timer monitors. Monitors measured and tested the delay between primer impact and actual explosion. Designed and constructed a laser welder process controller. Controller used an optical fiber probe to monitor and count laser light flashes during welding. Designed a computer controlled test station to test components used on the Trident missile.

• Evaluated a special color NTSC video enhancement circuit for use in consumer TVs for a large cable company. Designed and built a prototype circuit to test picture improvements. Wrote detailed report of findings. Also designed and built several custom video signal test generators that were used in medial camera applications.

* September, 2000 to February, 2001
SILVERLINE POWER CONVERSION,  Senior Project Engineer
Conducted sustaining engineering for a 100 watt uninterruptible computer power supply (UPS).   Designed several product test fixtures and compoenet testers.   Designed a battery tester that discharged a battery with either a constant current or a constant power load.  Designed a 100 watt DC to AC inverter for supplying continuous AC power to a computer system.   Designed a percision AC wattmeter.    Laid off when Boulder office closed.