Selected Work

SN&N engineers designed and developed an integrated pacing and EGM sensing system for synchronized delivery of Pulse Field Ablation (PFA) therapy for treating atrial fibrillation. This revolutionary new treatment developed by Farapulse, Inc. involves precise and momentary creation of a therapeutic high voltage electric field to treat uniquely-sensitive myocardium. Collateral, non-target tissues are spared due to their higher threshold to PFA. Pacing and EGM sensing in the SN&N design is immune to high voltage coupling in the patient's heart. Turnkey product development included system architecture design, prototype development for animal studies, electronic design, PCB layout, fabrication, board assembly, firmware development, top level software and GUI design.

Integrated Nano-Technologies

Turnkey product development of a portable molecular diagnostics instrument for pathogen detection. SN&N engineering developed specifications, system architecture design, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) thermal cycler, custom motor drivers for fluidics and sample preparation, ultrasonic horn driver design, prototyping, electronic design, PCB layout, fabrication, board assembly, firmware development, top level software, GUI design, customized Android tablet application and cloud connection of the fully automated DNA analysis instrument. The Palladium™ instrument automates the entire genetic identification process in a compact size and confirms the presence of a targeted pathogen.

Miramar Labs

Designed mixed-signal integrated electronics, FPGA code, microwave delivery and power electronics for three generations of high-power microwave generators. Precision digital servos in FPGAs control microwave power delivery to 0.2dbm and thermoelectric-based heat exchangers ensure safe and efficient delivery of microwave energy to human tissue. Patented design is used for sweat-gland reduction.

Developed system architecture, designed analog electronics, developed digital servo algorithms and designed patented cell-lysing ultrasonic transducer drive circuitry for the original GeneXpert®, a fully automated DNA analysis instrument using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The system is used by among others, the US postal service for screening mail for anthrax spores and other biothreats.

On March 30, 2020 Cepheid received the FDA's first emergency use authorization for a point-of-care COVID-19 diagnostic for the Cepheid Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2 test. The test can provide rapid detection of the current pandemic coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 in approximately 45 minutes with less than a minute of hands on time to prepare the sample.

Designed, developed, fabricated and released to manufacturing a dual-band wireless, low-power, super-speed USB-based FDA-submitted programmer for implantable cardiac pacemaker devices. Programmer was controlled using a tablet and SN&N software engineering implemented boot-loader functionality and features in firmware for enhanced security against code tampering.

SN&N optical, electrical and software engineers developed super-quiet, ultrastable electronics to precisely pump and temperature control the solid-state laser crystal for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission. The LISA mission is a spaced-based gravitational wave observatory to directly detect gravity waves from enormously powerful astrophysical events like super massive black hole mergers and extreme mass ratio inspirals, among other cosmological possibilities. LISA is a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) and a follow-up to the famous ground-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) that was the first to detect gravity waves from a pair of colliding black holes in 2015. The laser frequency stability and noise requirements are among the most exacting for a modern physics experiment. SN&N designed, fabricated and delivered a set of all-analog, low-noise, low-power drivers for laser diode current control and modulation, thermal controllers for precise temperature control of the solid-state laser crystal, servos for laser intensity noise suppression, high voltage drive for frequency tuning the crystal, laser diode high current and modulation drivers for a fiber-based laser amplifier, fiber temperature control etc. The next step for SN&N Electronics is a space-qualified design of the laser drive electronics.