Stephens Micro Systems Pty Ltd
(Excellence in electronic design solutions)
I have been providing various industries with Electronic Design and related services for over 4 decades. I have worked with many technologies:
Wireless solutions...
I have a broad knowledge of WiFi (Nordic, ESP and others).
Bluetooth and BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy).
Radio Modems, including GSM and AT commanded.
I have written many low level drivers to circumnavigate various bugs within some higher level modules.
IR (Infrared) : short range, up to 1.1Mbs.
Wired solutions...
Ethernet, TCP, UDP, IPv4, IPv6, and custom
USB, IEEE-488, EISA, PCI, UART, LPT
SPI, I2C, I2S, SCI, LIN, CAN...
Low level embedded microcontroller solutions...
From 8 to 64 bit microcontrollers.
Very low to high pin count.
From rolling code Garage Remote Control devices, to high speed serialised IO extenders.
Firmware C, Assembly Language (ARM, 6805, 6808, HC11, HC12, 8051, Z80...), and others.
Custom made ISP (In Service Programming).
DSP solutions...
Filters – FIR and IIR.
FFT, DFFT, Linear FT, Correlation and Convolution.
I have a very broad range of tools to assist DSP development.
Robust interfacing solutions...
Every industry has its nemisis when it comes to IO interfacing. Whether it be lightning hitting a communications tower, or static electricity generated by a plastic bag making machine... I know what works, and what does not. I also know how to design for EMC Compliance.
Robustness is not just limited to IO – User Interfaces also need to be robust, for both hardware and software.
Logic solutions...
I have done many designs using dedicated logic devices and PLDs (Programmable Logic Device). Although, PLDs have the potential to offer a shorter design cycle, this can often backfire – with increased power consumption, greater complexity with EMC compliance, and lower reliability due to reduced ESD and Latchup immunity.
Finding the correct balance, is where the time and money is saved.
Linear and Audio solutions...
Working with linear circuits can be tricky. Good grounding and shielding techniques are important.
For digitisation, a good understanding of antialiasing and reconstruction are important for ADC (Analogue to Digital Convertor), and DAC (Digital to Analogue Convertor) operations.
Audio digitisation – I have worked with various encoding and decoding are technologies.
Electric motor control
Having worked with electric motors for some time, I have an excelent understanding of motor control principles. This includes brushed, brushless, induction, synchronous, single phase, multiphase, stepper... and their various amplifiers and drives.
I also have an excelent understanding of position encoding.
Low power and battery management
I have worked on several projects requiring low power operation, including remote control devices.
These projects are often battery operated and also require battery maintenance solutions.
I have also worked with technologies like solar, supercap, and induction.