Leigh Pringle, Founder

e-mail
eeleigh@pringleelectronics.com

 

BUSINESS EXPERIENCE:

9/96 to Present.  Consultant, Pringle Electronics Group (Owner/President)

Project experience is as follows:

2003 to present, approximately 40 projects with FPGA/CPLD and/or embedded processors including SoC. Most current project (6/2009 to 9/2009) was FPGA (Altera) redesign to add diagnostics and testability in a CCA for high end threat detection systems. Prior to that (10/2008 to 4/2009) was hardware and firmware architecture and design for a medical product based on Renesas SuperH family processor and Altera CPLD. Project includes precision control of BLDC motor and  Stepper motor, CAN bus interface, RFID and large amounts of I/O. Other projects include fireplace controllers (pellet, gas), specialty network products for LAN/Wifi, custom USB interfaced products, automotive diagnostic equipment (CAN, OBDII), audio, complex sensing and control systems, specialty microwave system controllers, surveillance, RV Leveling systems, memory and bus control FPGAs, FPGA designs which integrate several subsystems in custom applications. FPGA and CPLD projects are based upon newer Altera and Xilinx families, with design sizes from a few thousand gates to 500K gates (mostly 25K to 50K gates). Processor technologies include ARM7, AVR, AVR32, x86 and 8051 derivatives.

November 2006 to February 2008, employed (W2) salaried by a primary client, Spinnaker Microwave, Inc. projects included 2 large Altera FPGA projects (one with SoC) and 2 Atmel AVR based processor projects. Projects were for 1. digital control of microwave frequency hopping synthesizers, and 2. threat detection for security.

2000 to 2003, approximately 30 projects with FPGA/CPLD and/or embedded processors. Projects included fireplace controllers (pellet), RV products, music products, medical/dental, remote environmental monitoring, factory control, video routing/distribution. . FPGA and CPLD projects were based upon Altera, Atmel and Xilinx families. Processor technologies included AVR, x86, Mitsubishi and 8051 derivatives.

1996 to 2000, approximately 30 projects with PLDs, CPLDs and embedded processors.  Projects included fireplace controllers (pellet), automotive safety, consumer products for sports and data conversion products. Processor technologies included AVR, x86, PIC and 8051 derivatives.

 

6/95 to 9/96.  Silicon Graphics, Inc.  Mountain View, CA

Member of Technical Staff/Senior Process Engineer, Digital Media Systems/IMSD

Acted as senior engineering member and advisor to manufacturing engineering group.  Primary responsibilities included working as part of a large ASIC (500K + gates) design team, primarily adding design for testability (internal SCAN, etc.) and test vectors, working on a product manufacturing release team, and (from 1/96), working as lead diagnostics software developer for group.  Products are high end, UNIX based, graphics workstations and supercomputers based upon MIPS RISC architectures.

 

1/91 to 6/95.  Auburn Electronics Group, Auburn, CA/El Dorado Hills, CA

Chairman of Board/Director of Engineering 5/94 to 6/95, President/CEO 8/92 to 4/94, Vice President, Business Development and Chief Financial Officer 1/91 to 7/92

Co-founder of research and development/consulting company.  Responsibilities included engineering (concept, product and circuit/chip level), corporate business and financial management, sales and marketing.

Company specialized in chip, board and product level design, printed circuit board design, EMI (including FCC) and manufacturability consulting.  Products developed include telecom, computers, embedded systems, motion control, video and consumer electronics.


 

1/90 to 1/91.  Synesis Corporation, Fremont, CA/Rocklin, CA

Director of Engineering, Rocklin Design Center

Founding position in startup company.  Primary responsibilities included management/direction of Rocklin design automation/engineering center and hands on design projects including microprocessor based medical products. Other duties included customer interfacing, corporate CAD/CAE and computer integrated manufacturing(CIM) planning, site CIM and test engineering.

 

2/88 to 1/90.  Unisys/Convergent, Roseville, CA

Senior Staff Engineer, Custom Products

Primary responsibilities included conceptual and circuit level design/ redesign of customer specific products, with emphasis on quick-turn, quality and manufacturability.  Many projects were PC/AT plug in cards for telecom applications.  Additional responsibilities included CAE planning, integration and interface development.  Other duties were software development, SMT and through hole printed circuit design, project management and participation in group's sales, marketing and planning.

 

2/87 to 2/88.  Simucad Corporation, Menlo Park, CA

Senior Applications Engineer

Duties included pre and post sales engineering support, technical and sales presentations, applications and interface software development, product enhancements, sales and some marketing work. Products were logic and circuit simulators for electronic CAE.

 

7/81 to 2/87.  Sacramento Army Depot(DOD), Sacramento, CA

Automated Systems Division, Systems Engineering Branch

Duties included test system design and integration, systems and project planning, instrumentation and interface design, software development, logic simulation, IC modeling, analog and digital test program development.  Design and management of IEEE-488 bus test system projects. Secret clearance.

 

8/80 to 4/81.  Questar Electronic Design, Rancho Cordova, CA

Chief Engineer, Research and Development Department

Responsible for new product design and product improvement.  Design of low distortion power amplifiers, pre-amplifiers and power supplies. Responsible for production test systems and procedures.  Also served as production manager for three months in addition to engineering duties.

 

12/78 to 8/80.  Ramko Research, Inc. Rancho Cordova, CA

Engineer

Responsible for design and verification/test of broadcast audio amplifiers, pre-amplifiers, signal processing and routing systems and power supplies.  Advisor to production test and quality assurance for testing procedures and problems.  Design of printed circuit boards and mechanical packaging.

 

2/78 to 8/78.  Unimedia, Inc. Auburn, CA

Production Test

Duties included final test and diagnostics of high resolution video monitors for gaming and television broadcast industries.  Development of test procedures and specifications.

OTHER ACTIVITIES:

Outside activities have included Sierra College Center for Applied Competitive Technology(CACT) industry advisory committee (Chairman from ‘91 to ‘95),  member on Computer Integrated Electronics and CAD/Drafting  advisory committees, as well as TechPrep (high school and college) leadership committee.  Founding member of the Sierra Technical Alliance, a regional business consortium.  Also have consulted for a variety of companies.

 

EDUCATION:

 

Sierra College, Rocklin, CA  

A.S.E.T. (Electronics)  1975              

California State University, Sacramento, CA

Electrical/Electronic Engineering  1980 to 1982

 


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