project portfolio
TRANSCRIPT
Project Portfolio Ross Yeager
Senior Design Engineer, Altera Corp.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rossyeager
https://github.com/rossyeager
Projects
Altera USB-Blaster II
Adaptive Equalization Firmware Development
Altera Low Cost Configuration Cable
14nm FPGA Firmware Development
CycleAT
Coin Dev Board
BlindSafe Blindspot Detector
Thermul Electronic Heat/Cool Device
UC Berkeley Capstone Project
USB-Blaster II USB 2.0 based Altera download cable for FPGA/CPLD configuration, system
debugging, and security key/fuse programming (see User Guide)
Technical lead on project as NCG, 7k+ units sold per year
Contributions included:
Firmware and Verilog development (USB core, 8051 based MCU + Altera CPLD)
System/schematic design and board layout
Collaboration on host driver development, custom protocol development
Production test/programming board and test software design
Production management with overseas contract manufacturer
Customer support and debug
CE and USB certification
Peripherals: CPLD, USB 2.0, LVDS drivers, optoisolator, LEDs
Protocols: USB 2.0, I2C, assembly bit-bang SPI protocol, USB Endpoint FIFO, JTAG
Projects
Altera USB-Blaster II
Adaptive Equalization Firmware Development
Altera Low Cost Configuration Cable
14nm FPGA Firmware Development
CycleAT
Coin Dev Board
BlindSafe Blindspot Detector
Thermul Electronic Heat/Cool Device
UC Berkeley Capstone Project
Adaptive Equalization
Multi-rate adaptive signal conditioner
Tested, designed and implemented DSP model (MATLAB) then
implemented firmware implementation on MIPS based proprietary MCU
(with RAM size and instruction set limitations)
Stochastic gradient analysis- Frequency and channel independent
equalization through statistical optimization
Submitted by Maxim Integrated as a patent
Projects
Altera USB-Blaster II
Adaptive Equalization Firmware Development
Altera Low Cost Configuration Cable
14nm FPGA Firmware Development
CycleAT
Coin Dev Board
BlindSafe Blindspot Detector
Thermul Electronic Heat/Cool Device
UC Berkeley Capstone Project
Low Cost Download Cable
Led and developed a low cost, minimal functionality download cable for higher volume, low price market (universities, hobbyist, etc.)
Mid year tentative production launch
Full system design + host driver development
USB-stick-sized for portability
Low cost requirement
USB to JTAG only
Developed as “side project” for work
Projects
Altera USB-Blaster II
Adaptive Equalization Firmware Development
Altera Low Cost Configuration Cable
14nm FPGA Firmware Development
CycleAT
Coin Dev Board
BlindSafe Blindspot Detector
Thermul Electronic Heat/Cool Device
UC Berkeley Capstone Project
Altera 14nm FPGA Firmware
Development Tape-out gating firmware development for Altera’s latest 14nm FPGA family
NIOS II MIPS-based architecture
C and assembly firmware code development on simulated hardware
Firmware protocols and hardware interaction derived from a wide array of specification documents and from the hardware (RTL) designers themselves
Python and shell scripting for protocol packet generation
JTAG firmware driver development
Instruction timing characterization
Waveform and trace debug
Projects
Altera USB-Blaster II
Adaptive Equalization Firmware Development
Altera Low Cost Configuration Cable
14nm FPGA Firmware Development
CycleAT Tire Sensor
Coin Dev Board
BlindSafe Blindspot Detector
Thermul Electronic Heat/Cool Device
UC Berkeley Capstone Project
Responsible for full electronic development, team management, iOS contractor management, and Kickstarter campaign management
CycleAT: Multi-sensor based, low power, battery powered tire sensor
Electronic design responsibilities:
System design, BLE and MCU firmware, BLE profiling, board design and layout, power characterization, iOS app dev management, Android test application, and hardware testing
Project Video, Kickstarter Link
Peripherals: Temperature Sensor, Pressure Sensor, Dual Accelerometers, Solar Panels, Master/Slave MCUs
Protocols: I2C, BLE, UART
Projects
Altera USB-Blaster II
Adaptive Equalization Firmware Development
Altera Low Cost Configuration Cable
14nm FPGA Firmware Development
CycleAT
Coin Dev Board
BlindSafe Blindspot Detector
Thermul Electronic Heat/Cool Device
UC Berkeley Capstone Project
Coin Dev Boards
Sold and manufactured Coin dev boards as a partnership with Coin
Created BLE Android development template app for developers
Firmware updates to support the device
$15k in revenue
Projects
Altera USB-Blaster II
Adaptive Equalization Firmware Development
Altera Low Cost Configuration Cable
14nm FPGA Firmware Development
CycleAT
Coin Dev Board
BlindSafe Blindspot Detector
Thermul Electronic Heat/Cool Device
UC Berkeley Capstone Project
Solar powered, ultrasonic-based blind spot detector. Started as Kickstarter, then independently purchased as contract work.
Responsible for full electronic development: system design, firmware, hardware, board layout, power characterization.
Ultra low solar power harvesting. Low power design, low power firmware design. Non-standard power distribution network.
Bit-banged I2C master protocol in order to reduce MCU cost, optimized codespace to reduce RAM and drop to smaller memory and lower cost version of MCU
Peripherals: Ultrasonic Sensor, Accelerometer, Solar Panels, PMIC, LEDs
Protocols: I2C, Ultrasonic pinging protocol, PWM
Projects
Altera USB-Blaster II
Adaptive Equalization Firmware Development
Altera Low Cost Configuration Cable
14nm FPGA Firmware Development
CycleAT
Coin Dev Board
BlindSafe Blindspot Detector
Thermul Electronic Heat/Cool Device
UC Berkeley Capstone Project
Thermul eHeating/Cooling Device
TEC-based personal heating and cooling device
Full H-Bridge with second order low pass filtering based on MCU, TEC, and power requirements and specifications
PID feedback control loop implemented in firmware
Responsible for full electronics/firmware design (system diagram next slide)
Peripherals: TEC, PMIC, LEDs, Blower Fan
Protocols: PWM
Thermul Portable Heating/Cooling
Device
Projects
Altera USB-Blaster II
Adaptive Equalization Firmware Development
Altera Low Cost Configuration Cable
14nm FPGA Firmware Development
CycleAT
Coin Dev Board
BlindSafe Blindspot Detector
Thermul Electronic Heat/Cool Device
UC Berkeley Capstone Project
UC Berkeley Capstone Project
Automated Physiotherapy Exercise Generator
Project used Kinect-based 3D imaging to record and monitor physiotherapy exercises
Language-C#
Paper Link: http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2013/EECS-2013-91.html
Paper granted Fung Institute Paper Award