CV-January 2017

CV Of Icaros Savvides – January 2017 Page 1 of 17
Name & Address Icaros Savvides
83 Wilbury Road
Letchworth Garden City
SG6 4JJ
Telephone Home Telephone: 01462 622028
Mobile: 07941 575803
email: akjtech@hotmail.com
NI: YR 32 89 63 A
Place of birth London, England
Secondary Education Sir William Collins Comprehensive
Charrington street
London NW1
Academic Qualifications CSE's
Engineering Studies
Music
GCE ('O' level)
Mathematics
Additional Mathematics
Physics
Technical Drawing
English Language
Metalwork
GCE ('A' level)
Metalwork
City and Guilds
2nd year TV and Radio Engineering
ONC
Electrical and Electronic Engineering

HNC
Electronic Engineering plus
Endorsement
for Electrical Power.
Interests/Hobbies Horse riding, electronics, computing,
radio controlled models, air rifle and
powder shooting, skiing, DIY,
photography, squash, mechanical
engineering, wine making, music
(classical and pop), cooking.

SYNOPSIS
I am an experienced engineer of long standing with a wide experience of electronics. I
began with a bias towards analogue systems, and have attained expertise in digital
systems as they became more widespread. My experience encompasses high speed
analogue, up to GHz, high speed datacomms as well as baseband, various other branches
such as optical transmission and microcontrollers, PIC, Video, Audio amplifiers, RF
modulation and demodulation. I would like to expand, at some time, my skill set to FPGA
design.
I have been positively vetted a number of times up to at least ‘Secret UK eyes B’ and
have current SC clearance.
I have designed, built and written the software for a number of ATEs using Vee,
Labview and Teststand.
Software packages used:-
Microsoft Word Microsoft Excel Lotus Notes HP Basic
Lotus AMI Pro Vee 2 & 3 Orcad SDT Lotus 123
Eagle PCB PLM 51 Orcad PCB Autocad Lite
CCS ‘C’ Borland C PIC Assembler Autosketch
MS Visio Mentor CAD
Version A4.F
Zuken CAD MS Office
MS Windows MS Project Labview Teststand
September 2016-Present Ultra Precision Controls, Cambridge
Circuit Design Designing of circuits for various aircraft actuation
systems encompassing analogue and digital
technologies, CAN, FPGA, Ethernet.
Teststand 2014 Writing and modification of Teststand 2014 scripts
to encompass changes in test specifications.
Labview Writing and modification of Labview test vi’s.
January 2016-May 2016 Thales UK, Basingstoke
Labview Writing of test interface software for the
characterization and testing of a missile ‘Safety and
Arming’ unit.
Teststand 2014 Modification of Teststand 2014 scrips to reflect
changes in test specifications.

Labview Modification of software to enable almost real time
test data analysis which would previously have taken
a week’s work to manually format and analyze.
Design analysis Design evaluation and thermal management analysis
of a linear magnetic field driving system.
August 2012-Dec 2015 MBDA Stevenage
Bed of Nails Hardware design of a bed of Nails test system for
production testing of missile control fin actuator sub
system.
Labview Writing of controlling software (Labview) for above
design.
Update and redesign of a test set for testing of a
missile self-destruct unit involving detailed safety
analysis.
Labview Re-writing of Labview software for a missile
Electronics Processing Unit including Boundary Scan
functionality.
Schematic Capture Schematic capture utilizing Zuken IDE.
Documentation Writing of extensive support documentation, circuit
diagrams, etc.
Feb 2012-June 2012 Nujira, Cambourne
Labview Writing of test results system using XML
documentation methodology.
Jul 2011 – Jan 2012 Hasselblad (UK) Ltd
 Service Dept Setup Engaged to design and setup a new service
department to repair and service top level
professional flash (Broncolor) and lighting
systems.(Kobold)
Formulating job description for technician and
interviewing applicants.
High Voltage Repair and servicing of units was carried out
involving high voltages (>700v) and large amounts of
stored energy generated by high power SMPS.
Microcontroller Microcontroller subsystem used to control
functioning of whole product.
JTAG Updating of firmware via JTAG interface.

Sept 2010 – March 2011 ELE International, Leighton Buzzard
 PIC-Embedded C Engaged to redesign (due to silicon obsolescence) and
write the embedded C code, using Microchip C30
compiler, for a Microchip PIC24FJ series based
controller for controlling a materials testing system
incorporating a resistive touchscreen over a mono
LCD display and a 12bit analogue input.
May 2010 – August 2010 Instron Ltd, High Wycombe
 PIC-Embedded C Engaged to write embedded C, using CCS compiler,
for a PIC based microcontroller system emulating a
proprietary device employed in system testing.
 Labview - 2009 Wrote final system test code, in Labview, to test
the main control system for a materials testing
system.
Nov 2009 – May 2010 Merrychef, Ash Vale
 Electronic Design Engaged to analyse failure mechanisms, formulate
solutions, design the hardware and the PCB for a
power control board within a commercial
microwave/Fan assited oven controlling up to 5KW of
MW energy and 4KW of conventional heating
elements. Documentation was generated, to support
the exercise, using Microsoft office.
Feb 2009 – Nov 2009 EADS Astrium, Portsmouth
 Labview/Teststand Engaged to write Labview code at various versions
upto V8.5 with Teststand V3.5 and 4.1 for
production/qualification testing of an SSPA (Solid
State Power Amplifier) from GA level down to Sub-
unit level. (F's = 1 to 2 GHz, 50v 10A) using an
assortment of test equipment controlled via
IEE/488, RS232 and RS485 interfaces.
Sept 2008 – Feb 2009 Selex Communications, Basildon
 Labview/Teststand Engaged to write Labview V8 code with Teststand
V4.1 for production testing an RF board (F's = 100 to
3000MHz) using Keithly system DMM, Spectrum
analyser, Signal Generators, power supplies etc.

Feb 2008- September 2008 Elster Water Meters, Luton
 Labview Engaged to write Labview V8 code to control a water
meter test facility comprising a number of pumps,
valves, pressure sensors, flow sensors, temperature
sensors etc.
The system was used to test and characterise
various water flow meters, format the results and
upload them onto the company network.
Dec 2007 – Feb 2008 Flight Refueling Ltd, Wimborne
 Test Equipment Test facility for the testing of a the main control
unit for an in flight refuelling pod.
Labview Programming Both initial programming and modification of existing
code in support of a production environmet. Labview
7 and 8, Teststand.
Documentation Documentation to support the above
April 2007 – Dec 2007 Ultra Sonar & Communications Systems,
Greenford
 Test Equipment Design Design of various test facilities for the production
testing of a number of products connected with
marine surveylan for the programming and testing of
FPGAs. Various interfaces including JTAG boundary
scan were utilised.
PIC Programming Some of the fxtures included a Microchip PIC
microcontroller.
The PIC firmware was written in CCS ‘C’ by myself.
Labview programming Both initial programming and modification of existing
code in support of a production environmet. Labview
7 and 8, Teststand and Test Executive were used.
August 2006 – March 2007 CamSemi, Cambridge
 ATE Design Design of ATE system for Design verification
Testing (DVT) of a PSU controller IC, 256 at a time.
The system ran inside a temperature controlled
chamber from -40 to +125o
C
PIC Programming The ATE was controlled by an IBM Compatible PC
which communicated with the ATE via a three level

daisy chained PIC system along an RS485bus.
The PIC firmware was written in CCS ‘C’ by myself.
Labview The main ATE software was implemented in Labview
8.0/8.2
May 2006 – August 2006 Sepura Ltd, Cambridge
Tetra Terminal ATE Constructing and commissioning ATE systems for
testing of Tetra terminals.
Design and construction of special to type ATE
interface and control cards.
Feb 2006 – May 2006 Page Aerospace Systems, Sunbury
LED Illumination ATE Writing and modifying Labview code for testing of
high power LED lighting units for the A380 Airbus.
April 2002 – Feb 2006 Home Office Scientific Development Branch,
Sandridge
Miniature Low power Senior design engineer designing various low powered
devices, including audio and accelerometers, using
micro miniature electronic component techniques for
size reduction and power management techniques to
extend battery life to the maximum.
The devices needed both wide dynamic range and low
noise in addition to immunity to EMI both emissions
and susceptability.
EMC/EMI EMC and EMI were significant aspects of the
designs to be addressed.
Labview 7.1 Labview programming was used to design and
implement a number of applications.
PIC µControllers I designed various projects using Microchip PIC
microcontrollers where I also wrote the firmware, in
CCS C.
Feasibility Studies I also ran a number of feasibility studies from which
I generated full reports using MS Word and Excel.
Schematic Entry Schematics were either generated directly on Dx
Designer or hand drawn and presented to the
drawing office. Various simulation tools were utilised
during the contract.

April 2001 – April 2002 Marconi Optical Components, Caswell
Tunable Laser ATE Design Tasked with the design of an ATE system for production
testing various multi-terminal silicon tunable lasers using
Agilent/Keithley equipment and designing all the
interfacing hardware and test fixture interfacing
electronics.
IEEE/488 System was controlled via IEEE/488 bus controlled from
an IBM compatible PC
Visual Basic The test software was written in Visual Basic
Version 6.
October 1999 – April 2001 Astrium Aerospace Ltd, Stevenage
ATE Hybrid testing I was tasked with the design of an ATE system for
production testing of a number of Hybrid circuits for use
in a communications satellite (Inmarsat 4) using Agilent
equipment and designing all the interfacing hardware and
test fixture. Two sets were built.
Labview, Teststand The test software was written in Teststand and
Labview V6i.
March 1999 – October 1999 Agilent Technologies (Formaly HP FCO Ipswich)
SONET/STM1-OC3 Project Manager, managing the re-design and cost
reduction of a number of SONET compliant, multimode
fibre optic Tx, Rx and bi-directional modules controlled
using MS Project 98.
Bellcore Specification Specifying and sourcing of replacement silicon along with
the generation of full internal and external Qualification
and Characterisation reports to Bellcore Specification and
test reduction exercises for production.
October 1998 – March 1999 Raytheon/Cosser, (Harlow)
Employed for S/W and H/W support of an ATE
system testing a GPS Aerial front end sub-system
for airborne use. Testing at 1.5GHz and baseband
utilising HP VEE for control. IEEE and general
digital interface cards were also used for control of
the STTE and proprietary test equipment.

July 1998 – October 1998 Racal Acoustics (Harrow)
Senior Design Engineer employed to design a
number of special to type test boxes for the testing
and characterisation of an airborne integrated
communications system for large helicopters.
Standard digital and analogue technologies were
utilised along with FPGA’s, 16bit A/D and D/A
subsystems.
April 1998 – July 1998 LUCAS LAE (Shirley)
Primary design Primary design of a vehicle alarm siren for volume
manufacture for an overseas client using imbedded
ST62T53 microcontroller utilising low power
consumption techniques.
Design transponder ccts Primary design of transponder based vehicle
security/immobiliser systems.
VeriBest Version 97.1 Schematic capture for all the above was executed
on VeriBest Version 97.1
June 1997 - April 1998 Motorola AIEG (Stotfold)
Primary design of ECU Primary design of an Engine Control Unit for volume
manufacture for an overseas client using inteligent
Fets, imbedded microcontroller, SMPS.
Mentor Version A4.F Schematic capture was executed on Mentor Version
A4 (next version from version 8) with thermal and
cost analysis being carried out.
Primary design of g/box cntrllr Primary design of a gearbox Control Unit for volume
manufacture for the same overseas client,
schematic capture etc as above.
Primary design of body electrinics Primary design of a Body Electrics Control
Unit for volume manufacture for the same overseas
client, schematic capture etc as above.
May 1996 - June 1997 The Technology Partnership (Melbourn, Royston)
Piezo Transducer drive ccts Design of Piezo Electric transducer drivers for a
novel patented spray device, frequencies used were
20KHz to 800KHz.
Design for mass production(1M+) The transducers were to be used for various
purposes and so the drive circuits were individually

designed taking into account the various
requirements and restrictions of the customers.
Battery Driven Most of the circuits were designed for high
efficiency to be driven from primary cells.
High voltage drive Design of various sections of a novel printing system
including high voltage drives (1Kv+)
Ink feed pressure regulation Design of pressure regulation system for ink feed
subsystem.
HP VEE Design and programming of IBM PC based ATE
system using PCI bus instrumentation and HP VEE
software
October 1995 - April 1996 Scientific Generics (Harston, Cambridge)
155Mps fibre Optic STM1 link High speed LSI technology with a fibre optic
STM1 link on an eight layer pcb was utilised in
addition to smt technology.
Cellbus-ATM-S/UNI The link used a high speed Cellbus link with a
S/UNI serial to parallel/parallel to serial coder
chip interfacing with the fibre link.
Multilayer pcb design The second design was a large 14 layer backplane
to carry the various line cards, and control cards,
carrying data rates exceeding 20Mbs in addition
to various external control and power
connections. Both designs involved primary
design right through to a full production
information package.
Design for EMC and manufacture EMC considerations were of paramount
importance as the equipment was for both the
USA and EU markets and was low cost due to the
large volumes.
Mentor CAE/CAD The Mentor CAE/CAD development system was
used for schematic capture and pcb layout.
October 1994 - October 1995 Hewlett Packard FCO (Ipswich)
Semiconductor Laser ATE Senior design engineer contracted to design a new
series of production ATE’s to test various types of
semiconductor IR lasers, over temperature, for use
within the telecommunications industry.

HPIB ATE The rigs consisted mainly of HP test equipment
controlled by an HP 700i series workstation running
UNIX on a multi-platform network controlled by a
VAX.
VEE2 & 3, HP Basic and C Software used was VEE2 & 3, HP Basic and C, which
was designed and documented using Yourdon
structured methodology.
Stats. analysis & Documentation A complete documentation package was generated
both for manufacture and maintenance, various
forms of statistical analysis were presented for
acceptance purposes.
February 1994-October 1994 Hunting Aviation Systems (Uxbridge)
In Flight Entertainment Senior design engineer contracted to design the
complete seat end sub-system of an in flight
entertainment system.
 High frequency crosspoint The sub-system, basically, comprised a high
frequency crosspoint switch preceeded by FET
buffers controlled by an 8051 type controller which
communicated with the main system via an RS485
bus.
FM, Video, Audio Datacomms FM demodulators, FET oscillators, Audio/Video
control systems, BITE, RS485 & I
2
C sub-systems
were incorporated around the 8051 control core.
8051 software Power consumption, size and cost were of paramount
importance as was reliability and EMC compliance.
March1993-February 1994 GMIS (GEC Marconi In Flight Systems)
In Flight Entertainment Senior design engineer tasked with specifying,
designing and implementing a test system for the
development, production test and EMC of a Seat
Distribution Unit used within an In Flight
Entertainment System.
I
2
C, RS485, NICAM FMFDM The system included a frequency modulated
frequency domain multiplexed mode of signal
transmission for the video onto which a NICAM
channel was superimposed. The general mode of
control within the system was via an I
2
C bus along

with RS485 and the normal eight bit local bus all
controlled by an 68HC11 microcontroller.
Video/Audio routing & control After upconversion, detection and decoding the
various video, audio and digital signals were routed
and modified as required to their destinations.
March 1992-February 1993 SDA Protec, Watford
Camera control system Primary design of the control system of a
'Starlight' camera used for covert seveillance using
ambient light down to a level of 10-3LUX, ie
starlight.
Image intensifier The camera used a sensative CCD camera module
coupled via an optical taper to a second generation
image intensifier and a lrge aperture auto iris lens.
Line powered camera Some crude edge enhancement was designed in as
was a mains lock cct. The primary design of a line
powering cct to allow powering of a camera via its
signal cable was also accomplished.
Sept 1990 to January 1992 British Aerospace (Stevenage)
Fibre optic gyroscope Senior Design engineer engaged in the development
of a Fibre Optic Gyroscope from pre-production
stage to production including design and
development of test equipment.
Intel 80186 assembler Gyro was a complex mix of fibre optics, analogue
and digital design techniques with various
interconnected control loops and software.
Ceramic gyroscope Senior Design engineer employed to develop a
resonating ceramic Gyroscope from pre-production
stage to production including design and
development of test equipment
.
November 1989-Sept 1990 Lucas Aerospace (Hemel Hempstead)
Generator controller ATE Senior Design engineer involved in designing manual
test equipment for the testing, design proving and
evaluation of Generator Control Units for the main
generators used within the Airbus types A320, 330
& 340. Preliminary work towards the design of a

more general purpose Configurable Automatic Test
equipment system is now commencing.
April 1988-November 1989 Rank Xerox (Welwyn Garden City)
Scanned CCD imaging system Senior design engineer contracted to design and
develop an automatic colour detection, paper sizing
and contrast adjustment system utilising CCD
technology. Four peripheral control boards and a
data acquisition subsystem for the CCD system
mentioned above were also designed in addition to
the code for the controlling INTEL 8031
controllers. The code was written in PLM51 with
the overall development program control utilising
the YOURDEN and TAGUCHI methodology system.
Feb 1988 - April 1988 International General Electric Medical Systems
(Radlett)
8085 controller Senior Design Engineer engaged in the complete re-
design of the patient positioning sub-system of a
gamma ray body scanner.
Stepper motor control The system was controlled by an 8085 micro-
controller sub-system, with control software
written in assembler, interfacing with various
stepper motors and sensors. PAL technology was
utilised using ABEL3 for programing purposes.
Absolute positional feedback was ued for both
angular and linear measurements, which was
required to remain active, via a lithium battery, as
the mechanics were able to be moved manually
during main system power down. In addition the
system included electromechanical brakes and
clutches along with their associated control circuits.
Microsoft 'C' was utilised for additional peripheral
tasks as was the VAX/VMS on which ABEL3 3 was
installed.
June 1986 - Dec 1987 ICL Network Systems (Stevenage)
High speed datacomms Senior Design Engineer designing the complete line
card to interface with the de-multiplexed 45Mb/s

datacomm signal from the British Telecom de-
multiplexers.
ECL & fast Analogue The design involved high speed analogue and digital
interfacing with both bipolar and balanced
differential signals encompassing HC, FAST and
100k ECL as well as high speed gate array
technologies (LSI 10k ULA). The system was
termed an Automated Digital Distribution Frame
(ADDF) which performed essentially like a very high
speed telephone exchange with pulse stretching and
contraction techniques utilised to allow embedding
of system information so as to facilitate checking
of correct signal routing. Data control and error
monitoring, such as bit error rates and AIS (Alarm
Indication Signal), were carried out via the on board
intel 80C31 micro-controller. There was also design
input to the 2,8 and 140Mb/s line cards which all
had their own specific problems.
January 1986 - March 1986 G.L. Electronics
Design Engineer employed to design a slow speed
telemetry communication channel using FSK/PLL
techniques in conjunction with UARTS. The
telemetry channels were to interface with discrete
hardware at one end of the link and a data bus at
the other. A "voting system" was also designed to
allow selection by a computer bus of the best signal
from a number of base stations using signal to noise
ratios as a basis for selection. The system as a
whole was essentially a computer controlled radio
telephone exchange using "touch screens" for user
interfacing.
Oct 1985 - Jan 1986 MDS (Stanmore)
Low speed datacomms Test Department Manager responsible for the
testing of the Digital Signal Processing Unit for use
in the ALARM missile system. The department
consisted of four test engineers and two wiremen.
August 1984 - Sept 1985 MCCS (Frimley)

ATE software & hardware des Writing of software and redesign of hardware for
second line ATE system called SLATE. The language
used was a subset of MATLAS called SLAM. The
software written was for the testing of two
analogue boards. Work included the writing of all
the relevant documents required for evaluation of
the software and acceptance by the customer.
June 1984 - July 1984 EMI Electronics (Feltham)
Contract involved the redesign of obsolete and worn
out test equipment involving both digital and
analogue techniques connected with the Bloodhound
missile system.
March 1984 - May 1984 Dowty Engineering Controls (Watford)
Brushless DC motor control Primarily employed on a short term basis to design
and generate a feasibility study for a controller to
drive a brushless DC motor, task involved designing
with high power FET transistors and designing for
maximum efficiency and minimum power dissipation
as the equipment was to be powered by batteries.
Theproject was extended to allow the building of a
prototype controller which was duly accomplished
successfully.
I was invited to join a team designing the control
system for a North Sea oil rig rescue gangway
utilising two processors and various sensors, ie rate
gyros, accelerometers, pressure transducers, strain
gauges etc.
June 1983 - December 1983 Lucas Logic Ltd (Warwick)
ATE interface & s/w design Design of interface adaptor for use between DUT
and Marconi "Graduate" ATE system. Task involved
design of hardware, consisting of interface adaptor
and attendant cabling and drawing package with
writing and commissioning of ATE software utilising
a Marconi variation of Atlas called Matlas.

April 1983 - May 1983 Lucas Aerospace Systems (Hemel Hempstead)
ATE interface design Design of interfaces for in-house cued test
equipment system involving both analogue and digital
techniques.
ATE software writing Writing of appropriate in-house software for
testing to be carried out using the above.
July 1982 - March 1983 STC (New Southgate)
Design of SLC for PABX Primary design of a small private branch digital
exchange (20 to 50 extensions) involving
microprocessor design and interfacing techniques.
System involved a central 8085 processor with
VLSI ROM, RAM and EEPROM memory, polling a
number of peripheral 8041 "slave" processors which,
in turn, interfaced with microcomputers within the
telephone terminals themselves. The analogue part
involved solid state 2 to 4 wire hybrids driving
codecs to convert the speech signal into 8 bit PCM
for manipulation and routing by the central
processor.The microcomputer in the terminals
controlled custom LCD displays, a novel tone caller
circuit and a high efficiency loudspeaking circuit.
March 1982 - July 1982 Marconi Radar Systems Ltd (Leicester)
Test equipment design Design and development of test equipment for
underwater weapons contract. Work involved serial
data interfacing, design of power monitoring and
digital signal multiplexing systems involving HP
IEEE/488 and HP GPIO control bus's coupled with
the HP9826 instrument controller. Design work was
mainly digital but some analogue work was involved.
March 1979 - February 1982 MAV (Borehamwood)
Test equipment design Design and Development Engineer involved in
airborne radar control circuit design and
development. Design and development of test
equipment involving large rack assemblies for
testing of radar sub-systems involving both analogue
and digital experience. Hands on experience was
also gained in the construction, manipulation and

testing of microwave systems and interconnection
hardware.
Feb 1978 - Feb 1979 MSDS (Stanmore)
Commissioning and Development Engineer, working in
the underwater weapons division. Work involved
commissioning and testing of advanced digital and
analogue assemblies and debugging of associated
hardware.
June 1973 - January 1978 Hammond Organs (UK) Ltd
Development Engineer responsible for commissioning
and repair of new electronic organs and
synthesizers, requiring fault finding and design of
both analogue and digital circuitry utilising TTL,
MOS, LSI, Thick Film and Hybrid technologies.
Circuits encountered included low distortion high
stability oscillators, low distortion low noise
buffers, amplifiers and active bandpass filters.
Wave shaping and envelope shaping circuits were
also dealt with.

CV-January 2017

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