CV-January 2017

CV Of Icaros Savvides – January 2017 Page 1 of 17

Name & Address Icaros Savvides83 Wilbury RoadLetchworth Garden CitySG6 4JJ

Telephone Home Telephone: 01462 622028 Mobile: 07941 575803email: [email protected]: YR 32 89 63 A

Place of birth London, England

Secondary Education Sir William Collins ComprehensiveCharrington streetLondon NW1

Academic Qualifications CSE'sEngineering StudiesMusic

GCE ('O' level)MathematicsAdditional MathematicsPhysicsTechnical DrawingEnglish LanguageMetalwork

GCE ('A' level)Metalwork

City and Guilds2nd year TV and Radio Engineering

ONCElectrical and Electronic

Engineering


HNCElectronic Engineering plus Endorsementfor Electrical Power.

Interests/Hobbies Horse riding, electronics, computing,

radio controlled models, air rifle and powder shooting, skiing, DIY, photography, squash, mechanical engineering, wine making, music (classical and pop), cooking.


SYNOPSISI am an experienced engineer of long standing with a wide experience of electronics. I began with a bias towards analogue systems, and have attained expertise in digital systems as they became more widespread. My experience encompasses high speed analogue, up to GHz, high speed datacomms as well as baseband, various other branches such as optical transmission and microcontrollers, PIC, Video, Audio amplifiers, RF modulation and demodulation. I would like to expand, at some time, my skill set to FPGA design.I have been positively vetted a number of times up to at least ‘Secret UK eyes B’ and have current SC clearance.I have designed, built and written the software for a number of ATEs using Vee, Labview and Teststand.

Software packages used:-

Microsoft Word Microsoft Excel Lotus Notes HP BasicLotus AMI Pro Vee 2 & 3 Orcad SDT Lotus 123Eagle PCB PLM 51 Orcad PCB Autocad LiteCCS ‘C’ Borland C PIC Assembler AutosketchMS Visio Mentor CAD

Version A4.FZuken CAD MS Office

MS Windows MS Project Labview Teststand

September 2016-Present Ultra Precision Controls, Cambridge ●Circuit Design Designing of circuits for various aircraft actuation

systems encompassing analogue and digital technologies, CAN, FPGA, Ethernet.

●Teststand 2014 Writing and modification of Teststand 2014 scripts to encompass changes in test specifications.

●Labview Writing and modification of Labview test vi’s.

January 2016-May 2016 Thales UK, Basingstoke ●Labview Writing of test interface software for the

characterization and testing of a missile ‘Safety and Arming’ unit.

●Teststand 2014 Modification of Teststand 2014 scrips to reflect changes in test specifications.

●Labview Modification of software to enable almost real time test data analysis which would previously have taken a week’s work to manually format and analyze.

●Design analysis Design evaluation and thermal management analysis of a linear magnetic field driving system.


August 2012-Dec 2015 MBDA Stevenage ●Bed of Nails Hardware design of a bed of Nails test system for

production testing of missile control fin actuator sub system.

●Labview Writing of controlling software (Labview) for above design.Update and redesign of a test set for testing of a missile self-destruct unit involving detailed safety analysis.

●Labview Re-writing of Labview software for a missile Electronics Processing Unit including Boundary Scan functionality.

●Schematic Capture Schematic capture utilizing Zuken IDE.●Documentation Writing of extensive support documentation,

circuit diagrams, etc.

Feb 2012-June 2012 Nujira, Cambourne●Labview Writing of test results system using XML

documentation methodology.

Jul 2011 – Jan 2012 Hasselblad (UK) Ltd● Service Dept Setup Engaged to design and setup a new service

department to repair and service top level professional flash (Broncolor) and lighting systems.(Kobold)Formulating job description for technician and interviewing applicants.

●High Voltage Repair and servicing of units was carried out involving high voltages (>700v) and large amounts of stored energy generated by high power SMPS.

●Microcontroller Microcontroller subsystem used to control functioning of whole product.

●JTAG Updating of firmware via JTAG interface.

Sept 2010 – March 2011 ELE International, Leighton Buzzard● PIC-Embedded C Engaged to redesign (due to silicon

obsolescence) and write the embedded C code, using Microchip C30 compiler, for a Microchip PIC24FJ series based controller for controlling a materials testing system incorporating a resistive touchscreen over a mono LCD display and a 12bit analogue input.

May 2010 – August 2010 Instron Ltd, High Wycombe● PIC-Embedded C Engaged to write embedded C, using CCS

compiler, for a PIC based microcontroller system


emulating a proprietary device employed in system testing.

● Labview - 2009 Wrote final system test code, in Labview, to test the main control system for a materials testing system.

Nov 2009 – May 2010 Merrychef, Ash Vale● Electronic Design Engaged to analyse failure mechanisms,

formulate solutions, design the hardware and the PCB for a power control board within a commercial microwave/Fan assited oven controlling up to 5KW of MW energy and 4KW of conventional heating elements. Documentation was generated, to support the exercise, using Microsoft office.

Feb 2009 – Nov 2009 EADS Astrium, Portsmouth● Labview/Teststand Engaged to write Labview code at various

versions upto V8.5 with Teststand V3.5 and 4.1 for production/qualification testing of an SSPA (Solid State Power Amplifier) from GA level down to Sub-unit level. (F's = 1 to 2 GHz, 50v 10A) using an assortment of test equipment controlled via IEE/488, RS232 and RS485 interfaces.

Sept 2008 – Feb 2009 Selex Communications, Basildon● Labview/Teststand Engaged to write Labview V8 code with

Teststand V4.1 for production testing an RF board (F's = 100 to 3000MHz) using Keithly system DMM, Spectrum analyser, Signal Generators, power supplies etc.

Feb 2008- September 2008 Elster Water Meters, Luton● Labview Engaged to write Labview V8 code to control a

water meter test facility comprising a number of pumps, valves, pressure sensors, flow sensors, temperature sensors etc.The system was used to test and characterise various water flow meters, format the results and upload them onto the company network.

Dec 2007 – Feb 2008 Flight Refueling Ltd, Wimborne● Test Equipment Test facility for the testing of a the main control

unit for an in flight refuelling pod.●Labview Programming Both initial programming and modification of

existing code in support of a production environmet. Labview 7 and 8, Teststand.


●Documentation Documentation to support the above

April 2007 – Dec 2007 Ultra Sonar & Communications Systems, Greenford● Test Equipment Design Design of various test facilities for the production

testing of a number of products connected with marine surveylan for the programming and testing of FPGAs. Various interfaces including JTAG boundary scan were utilised.

●PIC Programming Some of the fxtures included a Microchip PIC microcontroller.The PIC firmware was written in CCS ‘C’ by myself.

●Labview programming Both initial programming and modification of existing code in support of a production environmet. Labview 7 and 8, Teststand and Test Executive were used.

August 2006 – March 2007 CamSemi, Cambridge● ATE Design Design of ATE system for Design verification

Testing (DVT) of a PSU controller IC, 256 at a time.The system ran inside a temperature controlled chamber from -40 to +125oC

●PIC Programming The ATE was controlled by an IBM Compatible PC which communicated with the ATE via a three level daisy chained PIC system along an RS485bus.The PIC firmware was written in CCS ‘C’ by myself.

●Labview The main ATE software was implemented in Labview 8.0/8.2

May 2006 – August 2006 Sepura Ltd, Cambridge●Tetra Terminal ATE Constructing and commissioning ATE systems for

testing of Tetra terminals.Design and construction of special to type ATE interface and control cards.

Feb 2006 – May 2006 Page Aerospace Systems, Sunbury●LED Illumination ATE Writing and modifying Labview code for testing

of high power LED lighting units for the A380 Airbus.


April 2002 – Feb 2006 Home Office Scientific Development Branch, Sandridge●Miniature Low power Senior design engineer designing various low

powered devices, including audio and accelerometers, using micro miniature electronic component techniques for size reduction and power management techniques to extend battery life to the maximum.The devices needed both wide dynamic range and low noise in addition to immunity to EMI both emissions and susceptability.

●EMC/EMI EMC and EMI were significant aspects of the designs to be addressed.●Labview 7.1 Labview programming was used to design and

implement a number of applications.●PIC µControllers I designed various projects using Microchip PIC

microcontrollers where I also wrote the firmware, in CCS C.

●Feasibility Studies I also ran a number of feasibility studies from which I generated full reports using MS Word and Excel.

●Schematic Entry Schematics were either generated directly on Dx Designer or hand drawn and presented to the drawing office. Various simulation tools were utilised during the contract.

April 2001 – April 2002 Marconi Optical Components, Caswell●Tunable Laser ATE Design Tasked with the design of an ATE system for

production testing various multi-terminal silicon tunable lasers using Agilent/Keithley equipment and designing all the interfacing hardware and test fixture interfacing electronics.

●IEEE/488 System was controlled via IEEE/488 bus controlled from an IBM compatible PC

●Visual Basic The test software was written in Visual Basic Version 6.

October 1999 – April 2001 Astrium Aerospace Ltd, Stevenage●ATE Hybrid testing I was tasked with the design of an ATE system for

production testing of a number of Hybrid circuits for use in a communications satellite (Inmarsat 4) using Agilent equipment and designing all the interfacing hardware and test fixture. Two sets were built.

●Labview, Teststand The test software was written in Teststand and Labview V6i.

March 1999 – October 1999 Agilent Technologies (Formaly HP FCO Ipswich)●SONET/STM1-OC3 Project Manager, managing the re-design and cost

reduction of a number of SONET compliant,


multimode fibre optic Tx, Rx and bi-directional modules controlled using MS Project 98.

●Bellcore Specification Specifying and sourcing of replacement silicon along with the generation of full internal and external Qualification and Characterisation reports to Bellcore Specification and test reduction exercises for production.

October 1998 – March 1999 Raytheon/Cosser, (Harlow)Employed for S/W and H/W support of an ATE system testing a GPS Aerial front end sub-system for airborne use. Testing at 1.5GHz and baseband utilising HP VEE for control. IEEE and general digital interface cards were also used for control of the STTE and proprietary test equipment.


July 1998 – October 1998 Racal Acoustics (Harrow)Senior Design Engineer employed to design a number of special to type test boxes for the testing and characterisation of an airborne integrated communications system for large helicopters. Standard digital and analogue technologies were utilised along with FPGA’s, 16bit A/D and D/A subsystems.

April 1998 – July 1998 LUCAS LAE (Shirley)∙Primary design Primary design of a vehicle alarm siren for

volume manufacture for an overseas client using imbedded ST62T53 microcontroller utilising low power consumption techniques.

∙Design transponder ccts Primary design of transponder based vehicle security/immobiliser systems.

∙VeriBest Version 97.1 Schematic capture for all the above was executed on VeriBest Version 97.1

June 1997 - April 1998 Motorola AIEG (Stotfold)∙Primary design of ECU Primary design of an Engine Control Unit for

volume manufacture for an overseas client using inteligent Fets, imbedded microcontroller, SMPS.

∙Mentor Version A4.F Schematic capture was executed on Mentor Version A4 (next version from version 8) with thermal and cost analysis being carried out.

∙Primary design of g/box cntrllr Primary design of a gearbox Control Unit for volume manufacture for the same overseas client, schematic capture etc as above.

∙Primary design of body electrinics Primary design of a Body Electrics Control Unit for volume manufacture for the same overseas client, schematic capture etc as above.

May 1996 - June 1997 The Technology Partnership (Melbourn, Royston)

∙Piezo Transducer drive ccts Design of Piezo Electric transducer drivers for a novel patented spray device, frequencies used were 20KHz to 800KHz.

∙Design for mass production(1M+) The transducers were to be used for various purposes and so the drive circuits were individually designed taking into account the various requirements and restrictions of the customers.

∙Battery Driven Most of the circuits were designed for high efficiency to be driven from primary cells.

∙High voltage drive Design of various sections of a novel printing system including high voltage drives (1Kv+)


∙Ink feed pressure regulation Design of pressure regulation system for ink feed subsystem.

∙HP VEE Design and programming of IBM PC based ATE system using PCI bus instrumentation and HP VEE software

October 1995 - April 1996 Scientific Generics (Harston, Cambridge)∙155Mps fibre Optic STM1 link High speed LSI technology with a fibre optic

STM1 link on an eight layer pcb was utilised in addition to smt technology.

∙Cellbus-ATM-S/UNI The link used a high speed Cellbus link with a S/UNI serial to parallel/parallel to serial coder chip interfacing with the fibre link.

∙Multilayer pcb design The second design was a large 14 layer backplane to carry the various line cards, and control cards, carrying data rates exceeding 20Mbs in addition to various external control and power connections. Both designs involved primary design right through to a full production information package.

∙Design for EMC and manufacture EMC considerations were of paramount importance as the equipment was for both the USA and EU markets and was low cost due to the large volumes.

∙Mentor CAE/CAD The Mentor CAE/CAD development system was used for schematic capture and pcb layout.

October 1994 - October 1995 Hewlett Packard FCO (Ipswich)∙Semiconductor Laser ATE Senior design engineer contracted to design a

new series of production ATE’s to test various types of semiconductor IR lasers, over temperature, for use within the telecommunications industry.

∙HPIB ATE The rigs consisted mainly of HP test equipment controlled by an HP 700i series workstation running UNIX on a multi-platform network controlled by a VAX.

∙VEE2 & 3, HP Basic and C Software used was VEE2 & 3, HP Basic and C, which was designed and documented using Yourdon structured methodology.

∙Stats. analysis & Documentation A complete documentation package was generated both for manufacture and maintenance, various forms of statistical analysis were presented for acceptance purposes.


February 1994-October 1994Hunting Aviation Systems (Uxbridge)∙In Flight Entertainment Senior design engineer contracted to design the

complete seat end sub-system of an in flight entertainment system.

∙ High frequency crosspoint The sub-system, basically, comprised a high frequency crosspoint switch preceeded by FET buffers controlled by an 8051 type controller which communicated with the main system via an RS485 bus.

∙FM, Video, Audio Datacomms FM demodulators, FET oscillators, Audio/Video control systems, BITE, RS485 & I2C sub-systems were incorporated around the 8051 control core.

∙8051 software Power consumption, size and cost were of paramount importance as was reliability and EMC compliance.

March1993-February 1994 GMIS (GEC Marconi In Flight Systems)∙In Flight Entertainment Senior design engineer tasked with specifying,

designing and implementing a test system for the development, production test and EMC of a Seat Distribution Unit used within an In Flight Entertainment System.

∙I2C, RS485, NICAM FMFDM The system included a frequency modulated frequency domain multiplexed mode of signal transmission for the video onto which a NICAM channel was superimposed. The general mode of control within the system was via an I2C bus along with RS485 and the normal eight bit local bus all controlled by an 68HC11 microcontroller.

∙Video/Audio routing & control After upconversion, detection and decoding the various video, audio and digital signals were routed and modified as required to their destinations.

March 1992-February 1993 SDA Protec, WatfordCamera control system Primary design of the control system of a

'Starlight' camera used for covert seveillance using ambient light down to a level of 10-3LUX, ie starlight.

Image intensifier The camera used a sensative CCD camera module coupled via an optical taper to a second generation image intensifier and a lrge aperture auto iris lens.

Line powered camera Some crude edge enhancement was designed in as was a mains lock cct. The primary design of


a line powering cct to allow powering of a camera via its signal cable was also accomplished.

Sept 1990 to January 1992 British Aerospace (Stevenage) Fibre optic gyroscope Senior Design engineer engaged in the

development of a Fibre Optic Gyroscope from pre-production stage to production including design and development of test equipment.

Intel 80186 assembler Gyro was a complex mix of fibre optics, analogue and digital design techniques with various interconnected control loops and software.

Ceramic gyroscope Senior Design engineer employed to develop a resonating ceramic Gyroscope from pre-production stage to production including design and development of test equipment.

November 1989-Sept 1990 Lucas Aerospace (Hemel Hempstead)∙Generator controller ATE Senior Design engineer involved in designing

manual test equipment for the testing, design proving and evaluation of Generator Control Units for the main generators used within the Airbus types A320, 330 & 340. Preliminary work towards the design of a more general purpose Configurable Automatic Test equipment system is now commencing.

April 1988-November 1989 Rank Xerox (Welwyn Garden City)∙Scanned CCD imaging system Senior design engineer contracted to design and

develop an automatic colour detection, paper sizing and contrast adjustment system utilising CCD technology. Four peripheral control boards and a data acquisition subsystem for the CCD system mentioned above were also designed in addition to the code for the controlling INTEL 8031 controllers. The code was written in PLM51 with the overall development program control utilising the YOURDEN and TAGUCHI methodology system.

Feb 1988 - April 1988 International General Electric Medical Systems (Radlett)

∙8085 controller Senior Design Engineer engaged in the complete re-design of the patient positioning sub-system of a gamma ray body scanner.


∙Stepper motor control The system was controlled by an 8085 micro-controller sub-system, with control software written in assembler, interfacing with various stepper motors and sensors. PAL technology was utilised using ABEL3 for programing purposes. Absolute positional feedback was ued for both angular and linear measurements, which was required to remain active, via a lithium battery, as the mechanics were able to be moved manually during main system power down. In addition the system included electromechanical brakes and clutches along with their associated control circuits. Microsoft 'C' was utilised for additional peripheral tasks as was the VAX/VMS on which ABEL3 3 was installed.

June 1986 - Dec 1987 ICL Network Systems (Stevenage)∙High speed datacomms Senior Design Engineer designing the complete

line card to interface with the de-multiplexed 45Mb/s datacomm signal from the British Telecom de-multiplexers.

∙ECL & fast Analogue The design involved high speed analogue and digital interfacing with both bipolar and balanced differential signals encompassing HC, FAST and 100k ECL as well as high speed gate array technologies (LSI 10k ULA). The system was termed an Automated Digital Distribution Frame (ADDF) which performed essentially like a very high speed telephone exchange with pulse stretching and contraction techniques utilised to allow embedding of system information so as to facilitate checking of correct signal routing. Data control and error monitoring, such as bit error rates and AIS (Alarm Indication Signal), were carried out via the on board intel 80C31 micro-controller. There was also design input to the 2,8 and 140Mb/s line cards which all had their own specific problems.

January 1986 - March 1986 G.L. Electronics


Design Engineer employed to design a slow speed telemetry communication channel using FSK/PLL techniques in conjunction with UARTS. The telemetry channels were to interface with discrete hardware at one end of the link and a data bus at the other. A "voting system" was also designed to allow selection by a computer bus of the best signal from a number of base stations using signal to noise ratios as a basis for selection. The system as a whole was essentially a computer controlled radio telephone exchange using "touch screens" for user interfacing.

Oct 1985 - Jan 1986 MDS (Stanmore)∙Low speed datacomms Test Department Manager responsible for the

testing of the Digital Signal Processing Unit for use in the ALARM missile system. The department consisted of four test engineers and two wiremen.

August 1984 - Sept 1985 MCCS (Frimley)∙ATE software & hardware des Writing of software and redesign of hardware for

second line ATE system called SLATE. The language used was a subset of MATLAS called SLAM. The software written was for the testing of two analogue boards. Work included the writing of all the relevant documents required for evaluation of the software and acceptance by the customer.

June 1984 - July 1984 EMI Electronics (Feltham)Contract involved the redesign of obsolete and worn out test equipment involving both digital and analogue techniques connected with the Bloodhound missile system.

March 1984 - May 1984 Dowty Engineering Controls (Watford)∙Brushless DC motor control Primarily employed on a short term basis to

design and generate a feasibility study for a controller to drive a brushless DC motor, task involved designing with high power FET transistors and designing for maximum efficiency and minimum power dissipation as the equipment was to be powered by batteries. Theproject was extended to allow the building of


a prototype controller which was duly accomplished successfully.I was invited to join a team designing the control system for a North Sea oil rig rescue gangway utilising two processors and various sensors, ie rate gyros, accelerometers, pressure transducers, strain gauges etc.

June 1983 - December 1983 Lucas Logic Ltd (Warwick)∙ATE interface & s/w design Design of interface adaptor for use between

DUT and Marconi "Graduate" ATE system. Task involved design of hardware, consisting of interface adaptor and attendant cabling and drawing package with writing and commissioning of ATE software utilising a Marconi variation of Atlas called Matlas.


April 1983 - May 1983 Lucas Aerospace Systems (Hemel Hempstead)

∙ATE interface design Design of interfaces for in-house cued test equipment system involving both analogue and digital techniques.

∙ATE software writing Writing of appropriate in-house software for testing to be carried out using the above.

July 1982 - March 1983 STC (New Southgate)∙Design of SLC for PABX Primary design of a small private branch digital

exchange (20 to 50 extensions) involving microprocessor design and interfacing techniques. System involved a central 8085 processor with VLSI ROM, RAM and EEPROM memory, polling a number of peripheral 8041 "slave" processors which, in turn, interfaced with microcomputers within the telephone terminals themselves. The analogue part involved solid state 2 to 4 wire hybrids driving codecs to convert the speech signal into 8 bit PCM for manipulation and routing by the central processor.The microcomputer in the terminals controlled custom LCD displays, a novel tone caller circuit and a high efficiency loudspeaking circuit.

March 1982 - July 1982 Marconi Radar Systems Ltd (Leicester)∙Test equipment design Design and development of test equipment for

underwater weapons contract. Work involved serial data interfacing, design of power monitoring and digital signal multiplexing systems involving HP IEEE/488 and HP GPIO control bus's coupled with the HP9826 instrument controller. Design work was mainly digital but some analogue work was involved.

March 1979 - February 1982 MAV (Borehamwood)∙Test equipment design Design and Development Engineer involved in

airborne radar control circuit design and development. Design and development of test equipment involving large rack assemblies for testing of radar sub-systems involving both analogue and digital experience. Hands on experience was also gained in the construction, manipulation and testing of microwave systems and interconnection hardware.


Feb 1978 - Feb 1979 MSDS (Stanmore)Commissioning and Development Engineer, working in the underwater weapons division. Work involved commissioning and testing of advanced digital and analogue assemblies and debugging of associated hardware.

June 1973 - January 1978 Hammond Organs (UK) LtdDevelopment Engineer responsible for commissioning and repair of new electronic organs and synthesizers, requiring fault finding and design of both analogue and digital circuitry utilising TTL, MOS, LSI, Thick Film and Hybrid technologies. Circuits encountered included low distortion high stability oscillators, low distortion low noise buffers, amplifiers and active bandpass filters. Wave shaping and envelope shaping circuits were also dealt with.

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CV-January 2017