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E-M Designs, Inc.

EE Group

Established in 1975

 

171 Ocean Blvd.

P.O. Box 97

Half Moon Bay, CA 94019

PH (650) 728-3406

FX (650) 728-3436 

 

Other E-M Designs Webpages

www.emdesigns.com

www.emmanufacturing.com

 

 

PEOPLE

The following are brief resumes for our staff of Engineering Professionals. To download more complete resumes, please click on the provided link.  Documents PDF format (Acrobat).  A Free reader is available, use button to the left. 

Frank Gerhard - Founder / Senior Engineer Emeritus

When he founded Gerhard Engineering in 1975, Frank Gerhard was a seasoned professional and worked mainly as a "hired gun", someone who was called in to solve the most difficult of problems.

Frank was called in to take over the design of the Mars Observer Camera electronics after the original designers bowed out late in the project. As a result, the working camera was ready for launch on schedule.

Frank recently designed a family of laser radar systems used for precision three -dimensional measurements and imaging.    His electronic fluorescent lamp ballast designs pushed the state of the art to new levels and one design included a the design of a semi custom IC.

A large portion of Frank’s experience has been in the field of data acquisition and communications. He has designed high accuracy Analog to Digital Converters (ADCs), low level front ends, line carrier modems, and T1 transceivers.

He has completed many designs for both mass-produced consumer products and one off designs that have flown on the Space Shuttle and other spacecraft.

Prior to forming Gerhard Engineering, Frank was a founder and Vice President of Datum, Inc. During his 7 years with Datum, he had profit and loss responsibility for the technical aspects of more than ten million in annual sales. Earlier in his career, Frank has held the positions of Chief Scientist for Astrodata, Inc. and Senior  Research Engineer with Autonetics Division of North American Aviation.

Frank received the Degree of Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California. He has authored numerous technical papers and received national attention for his early work in analog computing equipment. Frank has also had numerous patents granted for his original designs.

Frank is now "Retired" but does help out when his technical expertise is needed.

His specialties Include:

 
        Laser Systems
        Medical Electronics
        Power Electronics
        Lighting Products
        Precision Instrumentation
 
 
Cliff Gerhard, P.E. -  Director - EE Group / Senior Engineer

Cliff Gerhard is a licensed Professional Engineer (California) and is currently Director of E-M Designs’ Electrical Engineering Group.   

Cliff is a third generation Electrical Engineer with more than 25 years of technical experience.  He has produced designs used in medical instruments, spacecraft, aircraft, automobiles, motorcycles, emergency vehicles, industrial control, computer products, test equipment, telephony, communications, consumer products, and toys.

Cliff has participated in multiple research programs for a local medical electronics company. His designs have pushed the state of the art in the REG and EEG monitoring instruments and his involvement has included  clinical evaluations in the operating room and neo-natal ICU facilities at several local hospitals.

Cliff has personally designed over 80 PC riser cards used on many of the major PC manufacturers products including Intel’s reference design for their new NLX form factor motherboard. Other PC peripheral designs have  included a dual slot PCMCIA host interface, 3Com PCI 10/100 Base T network card, and a S3 PCI video card.

Cliff has been the electronics team leader on a number of military satellite projects and recently headed a microprocessor design for a new military reconnaissance satellite (SBIRS-LOW).  He has experience with most  popular microprocessors such as Intel / Phillips 8051 types, Motorola 68xx, 68CHxx, Microchip 16Cxx, and Intel / Harris 80C88.

Some other projects include a number of automotive products including several emergency vehicle systems and other automotive diagnostic tools, consumer products such as telephone products, Digital audio playback systems, bulk battery charging systems, etc.

Cliff started his career as an entry-level technician for Data Chron, Inc., a local manufacturer of time code instruments, and within five years he had worked his way up to Chief Engineer. He left Data Chron in 1984 to join Frank at Gerhard Engineering and took over as President in 1995.

Cliff completed his requirements at West Coast University, Los Angles, CA obtaining the following ABET accredited degree:

 

Bachelor of Science in Engineering

Option in Electrical Engineering

(magna cum laude)

 

Cliff passed the California Engineer in Training (E.I.T.) exam on his first attempt in 1991.  He successfully petitioned the board to allow him to take the Professional Engineers License Exams (P.E.) early (normally 4 years of experience is required after obtaining the E.I.T. exam) and then took the P.E. exam in 1993 and passed on his first attempt. In the 1993 exam, 28% of those who took the test received a passing score.

His specialties include:

Medical Electronics
Airborne and Spacecraft Systems
PC Peripherals
Telephony
Automotive / Emergency Vehicle Systems

Please use this link to download a complete resume - PDF

 

Please use this link to download a complete resume - HTML

 
James "Pat" Young - Electrical / Mechanical Engineer
 
Pat Young is a seasoned Engineer who is equally qualified for circuit design as he is with electronic packaging / interconnect design.  He has over 25 years experience working in the electronics industry.
 
Pat re-joined E-M Designs in early 2008.  He had also worked as an Electrical Engineer with Gerhard Engineering from July 1990 to November of 1994.
 
Pat has extensive experience using Solidworks for 3-D mechanical design, Cosmosworks for stress analysis, and Floworks for thermal simulations.  Pat is also fluent with MicroCap (analog SPICE simulations) and Altium (Schematic/PCB Layout) tools. 
Pat's recent expertise is in the area of high speed data communications up to GHz speeds with a focus in interconnection technologies and high speed signal integrity.       
 
He is a holder of a number of patents and was a  primary proponent, author, and connector designer for the eSATA standard.
 
Pat is well versed in the areas of agency and safety regulations and certifications (FCC, UL, CE, TUV, CA, etc.).  As a EMI and ESD control specialist, mentor, and author, he has functioned as a world wide regulatory compliance officer bringing dozens of products through certifications.    

Please use this link to download a complete resume - PDF

Please use this link to download a complete resume - HTML

 
Vernon Johnson - Electrical / Software Engineer
 
Vernon Johnson joined E-M Designs in June 2005.  Vernon is an experienced engineer bringing more than 20 years of experience to the E-M Designs team.  He is skilled in both Hardware and Software Design. 
 
Vernon has received the following certifications:
 
       QS9000
       FMEA
       A+
       MCSA
       MCDBA
       MCSE 
 
Joanne Woscek - Consulting Associate - Senior PCB Designer
 
Joanne's combination of formal study and on the job training in the engineering field have resulted in 20 years of professional experience.  Her skills include Printed Circuit Board Layout of Analog/Digital, Power Supply and Backplane designs specializing in DFM, ATE and UL requirements.  Knowledge of several CAD systems include, Mentor Graphics Expedition, Protel, Power PCB, Cadstar and Visula.
 
Her specialties include:
 
       High Frequency - up to 2GHz+
       High Density
       Fine Pitch Surface Mount and BGA Packages

Please use this link to download a complete resume - PDF

Please use this link to download a complete resume - HTML

 
Edward Nakauchi - Consulting Associate - Senior Electrical Engineer
  
Mr. Ed Nakauchi has a BSEE and MSEE from Northrop University and Columbia Pacific University. He has over thirty years experience beginning with analog, power, and digital design. For the last twenty years, he has spent a majority of his time in the EMI/EMC/EMP and ESD areas for both military/aerospace companies and commercial audio/computer/medical companies. He has written numerous technical papers and magazine articles as well as presented many seminars on various EMI/EMC/EMP/ESD topics. Mr. Nakauchi teaches an Extension class at UC Irvine and was the primary author of a shielding design guideline for the Army and was an EMI consultant to the Air Force's Space and Missile Command on their COTS program. Lately, he has also worked on several RF design projects. Some of the systems that he has worked on include the Space Shuttle, Global Positioning Satellite, and the B-2 Bomber. He is a NARTE Certified EMC/ESD Engineer with a senior membership in the IEEE.
  
 

 

Updated = 07/01/2009
 
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