Microwave Antenna Design and Fabrication and Satellite Communications Expert
Technical Consultant #2006
Expertise
Summary
Microwave communications Technologist in the commercial, military and space industries applications. For NASA ACTS program, supervised payload and antenna design, qualification, fabrication, and production. Other programs; U.S. Government PAN program, MUOS (Military) Antennas and NOAA GOES-R antenna suite and over twenty other commercial satellites.
- Design and test of electronic warfare antennas.
- Design and test of spaceborne communications and command, ranging and telemetry antennas.
- Microwave component and antenna measurement techniques.
- Commercial microwave communication technology for the military and space industries providing antenna design, fabrication, and testing (near and farfield measurements
compact antenna test range).
- Program planning, estimation, budget and schedule control.
Experience
Independent Consultant, Present
- Provide consulting to a global aerospace corporation on spacecraft antenna and payload design, fabrication and integration process.
- Consultant to a major pharmaceutical company on optimum method of data reduction and calculations leading to more accurate and precise results.
Lockheed Martin Space Company, Newton, PA, 1982 - 2015
Manager, Antenna Products, 2012 - 2015
- Manager of the Antenna Products group consisting of a team of engineers and subcontractor.
- Technical lead and problem solver on several programs as they continued in their design, integration and test flows.
- Successfully fabricated the first in house composite reflector at the Denver facility, saving approximately $1 million per spacecraft production costs.
- Obtained the funding for the program, led a team of electrical, mechanical structural and composite materials engineers in Newtown and Denver, over a period of 10 months, held weekly meetings with the teams, wrote up and distributed actions which were reviewed with management.
- Wrote proposals, reviewed proposals, and helped engineers write their patent disclosures.
- Reviewed dozens of papers submitted by team for publication in IEEE and other journals.
- Technical Lead to reduce antenna tests times (nearfield and farfield) without impacting mission success. This effort is estimated to avoid costs of over $1.5 million dollars per spacecraft.
- Trouble solver and Technical Lead on several programs as they continue in their design, integration and test flows.
- Responsible for cost and schedule control for several projects. One of the major duties is to do the annual performance ratings for all the employees in the group.
- Held weekly meeting with the teams, took minutes and distributed actions, then followed up on the actions for each actionee before the next meeting.
- Presented progress to upper management on a weekly basis.
- Selected and justified suitable suppliers for a nearfield scanner, special ground support equipment, wrote purchase orders, made regular presentations to upper management on technical, cost and schedule issues.
Manager, Antenna Mechanical Design Group, 2007 - 2012
- Managed a team of engineers and numerous subcontractors. Activities include interviewing candidates to fill mechanical engineering positions.
- Coordinated the mechanical engineering team in their design, integration and test flows.
- Responsible for cost and schedule control for several projects and liaison with the customer.
- Involved in trouble shooting exercises on various programs and worked on the identification of the multipaction problem, redesign, re-tests of the MSS MUOS antenna feeds, diplexer and mesh reflectors.
- Coordinated RF proposal efforts for several proposals for multi-beam and shaped beam satellite communications antennas, (using POS, GRASP).
- For the payload systems and operation; helped with the end to end testing of the Rainbow payload. Solved issue with interaction of antenna and payload during final assembly on Astra program.
- Certified Principal Engineer for the SBIRS (Space Based Infrared System) antenna suite.
Manager, Antenna Electrical Design, 2005 - 2007
- Manager of the Antenna Electrical Design group consisting of engineers involved in the fabrication and test of several antenna subsystems.
- Taken on the additional role of Cost Account Manager for a program during this time.
- Solved major PIM problem - electrical and mechanical issue - on ASTRA program.
Lead Engineer Antenna Group, 2004 - 2005
- Leading the antenna engineering group on the Echostar X and Rainbow Ka programs.
- Conducted PDR and CDR, (Preliminary and Critical Design Review) oversaw design, fabrication and tests of the antenna and components for Echostar.
- Full technical, cost and schedule responsibilities.
Senior Staff Engineer, 1982 - 2001
- Expert in antenna design, fabrication, payload and antenna integration and test, link budgets, nearfield and farfield range measurement and calibration techniques.
- Developed multiple feed parabolic antennas.
- Designed and validated the first shaped antennas for the A2100 program, which were heritage for the Echostar and GE programs.
- Designed, took part in the fabrication and assembly of a scanning arm spherical nearfield range at Ku band.
- This was followed by the construction of a larger similar scanner for 20/30 GHz operation for testing the ACTS satellite antennas. The fabrication, test and validation of the scanner was performed. Supervised the fabrication, test and validation of the scanner.
- Lead on several satellite antennas, presented PDRs, CDRs for all antennas during this time: Programs included Spacenet, AMC, DBS, GE1,2,3 , ACTS, Astra 1KR, Koreasat, Echostar 1,2,3,7,10; Sirius 4, JCSAT 10, 11, 12, 13.
- Conducted final spacecraft level range test for several programs over 10 years.
- Conducted in-orbit tests of satellite antennas.
GORCA Space-Communications, Moorestown, NJ, 2001 - 2004
Communications System Consultant
- Monitored the contractor of a space and communications company (Lockheed Martin) on behalf of the Rainbow customer, for technical and schedule progress over 3 years in the design, fabrication, assembly and test and integration of the Rainbow Ku band satellite.
- Attended and wrote minutes for all weekly technical meetings for the customer.
- Solved major cross polarization issues during spacecraft level tests of the Ku antenna.
Marconi Space and Defense Systems, Stanmore, U.K., Manager, 1979 - 1981
- Technical management of the Electronic Warefare Antenna Design group of 19 engineers, specializing in the design and test of broad band, wide beam antennas for aircraft and ships.
EMI Electronics Company, Hayes, U.K., Microwave Engineer, 1974 - 1979
- Microwave antenna engineer, designed parabolic antennas, wide beam antennas, dielectric element array, passive reflectors for military applications.
Honors & Publications
Credentials
- Cost Account Manager Certification
- Certified Principal Engineer
- Management Fundamentals Program
- Green Belt qualified
- Control Account Management
- Introduction to Program Management
Languages
- English: Fluent, conversation, reading, writing
- Panjabi: Fluent, conversation, reading, writing
Academic and Professional Affiliations
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-Senior Member - (IEEE)
Awards
- Special Recognition Award - Novel measurement ideas and hands on implementation of the same.
Publications and Patents
- Presented papers at the Antennas and Propagation International Symposium and at the Antenna Measurement and Techniques Association. Presented paper to NASA on ACTS antenna.
- Three patents.
Education
- M.B.A. Management, Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ
- M.S. Microwaves and Quantum Electronics, University of London, U.K.
- B.S. Physics, (With Honors) University of London, U.K.