Ikon Semiconductor

Principal Applications Engineer, Feb 2013 – Jul 2014

Ikon was a Dublin-based start-up company developing an Integrated Circuit (IC) for LED lighting.
Ikon’s IP was generally applicable to any digitally-controlled Switch-Mode Power Supply, but the first target market was offline retrofit LED bulbs.
I was hired to establish an Applications team and lab.

All employees of Ikon were made redundant in June 2014.

Achievements ...
ResponsibilityAchievements
Test laboratory fit-out
  • Created a capable lab. with a very small capital and operational budget.
  • Semi-automated scripts using Python for various test equipment: RS232, USB, Ethernet.
Silicon evaluation
  • Test results within an hour of receiving new silicon.
  • Created a bench-top “tester” for test mode verification, device characterisation, etc.
  • Lowered the development cost for production test.
Reference design development
  • Designed, tested, and hand-assembled several boards.
  • Generated comprehensive technical reports.
  • Phased out reliance on external UK design house.
  • Designed a flexible prototyping board which significantly shortened the time to create and fine-tune a new plant.
Development of an FPGA prototyping environment
  • Created a complete system which allowed architectural or code changes to be verified in real-time, using real plants.
  • Potential for huge cost savings on IC verification and re-spins.
Marketing
  • Comprehensive analysis of competitor products and key specs.
  • Contributed technical and creative input for all collateral.
More details ...