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Martin Guthrie

Martin Guthrie has >30 years in electrical engineering. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan. Martin spent 15 years at RIM/BB with roles in IC design, Hardware and Software and management. Martin’s patent portfolio includes designs for USB battery charging (which eventually became part of the USB standard) and “power path management (PPM)” which is the architecture used in Texas Instruments line of BQ chargers. For many years at BB Martin’s team was focused on Blackberry phone battery life, responsible for the power distribution and battery life of the entire phone, as well as qualifying and specifying batteries. Martin’s team, with cooperation with Texas Instruments, developed three custom Power Management ICs (PMIC) used in many BB GSM phones. Post Blackberry Martin worked at a startup that built an 800um thick smart credit card that included a display with touchscreen, BLE with a 17mAhr battery.

Low Power Design Technics and Current Profiling

Status: Available Now

The availability of low power integrated circuits, specifically in the category of embedded system on a chip (SOC) microprocessors with wireless radio (WiFi, Bluetooth, LoRa, etc) functions has enabled battery powered solutions in a broad range of new markets and categories.  Products in the last decade have shrunk in size, from common cell phones, to smart watches, to ID badges, putting pressure on battery size.  In many applications, battery life is a key performance parameter for market acceptance, or competitive advantage.

The presentation introduces the audience to considerations that go into creating an optimal battery powered design from both hardware and software perspectives, and the importance of modeling.  Throughout the presentation there is focus on what to expect in the current profile based on the hardware and software design choices.  The audience will appreciate the difficulty in making good current measurements and why such measurements can’t be ignored in the product development life cycle.

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