Resume | PTConsultingLLC

Paul Tornatta

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/paul-a-tornatta-jr-134ab4a0

RF and Antenna Systems Consulting Services

Business Development - Research technical and industrial trends. Determine if the products and technology can add value in new or emerging markets.

Product Development - Work with sales, marketing, and engineering teams in the application of technology to develop products for the market.

Intellectual Property – Evaluate patents to determine potential benefit in specific markets and applications. Work with engineering and legal teams to write and file patents. Establish and maintain corporate intellectual filing budget. Coordinate the filing of patents in multiple geographies.

Research and Development - Use sales and marketing inputs to develop corporate strategic product roadmap. Develop 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year technology and product development plans.

Technical Training - Provide on-site technical training for corporate sales, marketing, and engineering teams. Hold technical seminars for customer’s technical teams to train them on the application of the technology.

Technology Evangelist - Dedicated to "selling" the company’s products and technology. Write articles and papers for publication in technical journals and magazines. Deliver presentations at technical conferences. Participate in interviews with industry analysts. Deliver corporate and technology presentations to customer’s top executives.

Work History

Cavendish Kinetics, San Jose, CA - March 2012 – October 2019

VP RF Systems & Antenna Engineering; responsible for Product Application Engineering. Key technical voice of the company facing the customer.

Developed the technical team in Asia responsible for working with local customers on product design incorporating the Cavendish Kinetics Digital Variable Capacitor.

Developed key tunable antenna technologies for application in Smartphones, mobile handsets, personal portable wireless routers, and tablets.

Developed tunable antenna design techniques for smartphones using full metal frames, segmented metal frames, and full metal backs. Tunable antenna types include, PIFA, Slot, ILA, and Loop geometries.

Developed tunable antenna design techniques to support carrier aggregation, dual-sim, dual-active, and MIMO in North America, China, Europe, Japan, South American, India, and Korea.

Developed tunable antenna techniques to support active closed loop tuning for head-hand effect mitigation.

Skycross Inc, Viera, FL - March 2008 – March 2012

Chief Technical Officer; responsible for technical intellectual property development, protection, transfer, and maintenance. Key technical voice of the company for internal and external activities.

Lead the technical team developing Isolated Mode Antenna Technology (iMAT). Secured the key Utility Patent. This technique is particularly relevant for wireless communications protocols that use multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) antennas such as WiMAX, 802.11n, and LTE (Long Term Evolution). It is also useful for diversity antenna systems such as those found in HSPA+, 1XEVDO and WCDMA.

Lead the team that developed Switch / Tunable Antenna Technology and secured the key Utility Patents for this technology. This technique is useful for reducing the size of multi-band antennas for mobile wireless devices allowing a single antenna to cover more than 10 separate communication applications.

Worked with the CEO and other members of the executive team to secure Series D funding of $23M USD.

Skycross, Inc, Viera, FL - January 2006 - February 2008

Managing Director, North America, Vice President Operations; responsible for business development in North America and manufacturing operations in Asia.

Developed customer relationships with key OEM’s and ODM’s.

Developed relationships with key outsource vendors in Asia and North America.

Managed engineering development and global operation activities through key revenue growth period (50% CAGR from 2005 – 2009).

Established company owned high-volume manufacturing operation in Shajing, China. Able to produce product for export and local market at $0.05US / minute fully loaded labor rate.

Skycross, Inc, Viera, FL - December 2003 - December 2005

Vice President Product Engineering and Operations; responsible for transitioning technology into usable products through an integrated engineering and operations transfer process.

Consolidated engineering and operations under a single manager, doubling product development throughput.

Developed product opportunity statement and customer requirements worksheets for sales reps and field application engineers to gather information and perform initial assessment of potential opportunities.

Developed figure of merit for potential opportunities allowing executive management to make quick assessments of the probability of success in engaging new customers and markets.

Coordinated the development outsource supply chain in China and Korea.

Radiall Automotive Division, Vancouver, WA - March 2000 – November 2003

Vice President, Automotive Business Unit; responsible for business performance of a vertically integrated operation serving the automotive industry.

Managed the launch of Radiall’s new automotive business unit in North America.

Developed automotive business proposal and presented to corporate management.

Obtained Tier 1 supplier status to the world largest automaker within six months of starting the business unit.

Moved business unit into a new independent production facility while maintaining 100% on time delivery and product quality defect rating of 23 ppm.

Developed business proposal to provide service to all automotive related customers world wide (proposal accepted by upper management December of 2000).

Achieved QS9000 Registration with zero findings.

Revenue growth for new business unit; 2000 = $1.4M US, 2001 = $4.7M US.

Radiall Automotive Division (formerly Larsen Antenna Technologies), Vancouver, WA - 1997–March 2000

Director of Technology reporting to the CEO; responsible for defining the technical direction of the company as it relates to the emerging wireless market and integration of antenna technology with all other divisions of the Radiall Corporation. Responsibilities also included management of the US and European antenna design centers.

Directed a team of engineers in the design and development of new antenna products for the emerging wireless market.

Introduced several successful new products increasing new products % of sales from 11% in 1998 to 50% for the first quarter of 2000.

Implemented new product introduction process, which resulted in a reduction in time to market by 25% .

Worked with other senior staff to establish technology development priorities and keep them consistent with strategic goals.

Interfaced with OEM customers to determine requirements, set schedules, and design and deliver final products.

Negotiated with the University of Washington to acquire surplused materials necessary to design and install an anechoic chamber at a cost savings of over $200K. Indoor antenna measurement capability has increased the number of days available for testing by 120%.

Metricom, Inc., Los Gatos, CA - 1996–1997

Antenna Systems Engineer; responsible for the development of low-cost, 2.4 GHz switching antenna array and next generation wireless modem antennas and microcell antennas.

Designed RF antennas and switching components

Interfaced with systems, software, and manufacturing engineers to establish requirements and specifications.

Managed team of technicians and subcontractors in developing antennas and related electronic components.

Worked with marketing to design a package that met aesthetic requirements

Negotiated with Watkins Johnson to acquire materials necessary to design and install an anechoic chamber at a cost savings of $100K thus eliminating the cost of outside testing.

Designed and developed a multiaxis positioner and necessary software.

Lockheed Martin, Sunnyvale, CA - 1995–1996

Product team leader; responsible for development of new technology for space-based communications applications.

Marketed department's technical specialty to customers resulting in technology development contracts in excess of 10 million dollars.

Led a team of engineers, technicians, and fabrication specialists in the production of antennas and associated electronics and mechanisms for space-based communication systems.

Interfaced with customers, customer consultants, and program management during every phase of the project. Developed, maintained, and reported budget and schedule progress.

Designed antennas and RF electronics, including:

60 GHz high-power solid state amplifier
L-band quad ridged horn
0.10–1.2 GHz LPDA, stowable
2.8–16.0 GHz dielectrically loaded horn
0.40–3.4 GHz LPMA
Broad band quad ridged horn operating from 3.0–16.0 GHz
3.5–18.0 GHz quad ridged horn with integrated electronics
0.10–0.550 GHz LPDA, stowable
Multiple element scanning array
Low frequency crossed V dipole antenna

Issued patents

Head-Hand capacitance compensation with digital variable capacitor

US10594024

Issued March 17, 2020

Method and apparatus of maintaining constant antenna resonant frequency and impedance match in the presence of environmental changes and head/hand effect using variable reactance antenna aperture tuners

United States 10418717

Issued September 17, 2019

Techniques of tuning an antenna by weak coupling of a variable impedance component

United States 9812780

Issued November 7, 2017

Methods for reducing near-field radiation and specific absorption rate (SAR) values in communication devices

United States 9680514

Issued June 13, 2017

Dual Feed Antenna

United States 9397388

Issued July 19, 2016

System providing high isolation between antennas on electronic device

United States 8928538

Issued January 6, 2015

Methods for reducing near-field radiation and specific absorption rate (sar) values in communications devices
United States US 8344956 B2
Issued January 1, 2013

A method is provided for reducing near-field radiation and specific absorption rate (SAR) values in a communications device.

Multichannel wireless system
United States 8165315
Issued April 24, 2012

An audio system responsive to a source of audio programming.

Antenna system providing high isolation between antennas on electronics device
United States 20110122035
Issued May 2011

An antenna system is provided in a portable electronics device having a printed circuit board assembly.

Tunable Diversity Antenna for use with Frequency Hopping Communications Protocol
United States US8018983
Issued September 13, 2011

A sound reproducing device. The sound-reproducing device for receiving a frequency-hopping signal having an instantaneous frequency within a hopping bandwidth.

Antenna system for receiving digital video broadcast signals
United States US 7667659 B2
Issued February 23, 2010

An antenna system operative with a communications device for receiving a radio frequency signal, wherein the communications device produces a first control signal representing a frequency of a received signal.

Antenna structure
United States USD623632 S1
Issued November 10, 2009

Dual feed antenna
United States US20100156726 A1
Filed December 22, 2009
A multi-port antenna structure for a wireless-enabled communications device includes a coupler-antenna having a first antenna port for transmitting electromagnetic signals and a second antenna port for receiving electromagnetic signals.

Tunable diversity antenna for use with frequency hopping communications protocol. United States 8018983
Issued January 9, 2008

A sound reproducing device.

Multimode antenna structure
United States US7688275 B2
Issued June 27, 2007

A multimode antenna structure is provided for transmitting and receiving electromagnetic signals in a communications device.

Antenna system for receiving digital video broadcast signals
United States US7667659 B2
Issued January 25, 2007

Multiband tunable antenna
United States US7616163 B2
Issued January 25, 2007

One embodiment of the invention relates to an antenna providing a tunable resonant frequency within a low frequency band and further providing a high resonant frequency.

Antenna structure
United States USD573589 S1
Issued June 22, 2007

The ornamental design for an antenna structure.

Ultra-wide band monopole antenna
United States US 7436360 B2
Issued October 14, 2008

A wide-band antenna.

Radio frequency identification tag
United States US 7336243 B2
Issued February 26, 2008

A radio frequency identification tag attached to an object and comprising an antenna and an integrated circuit for providing object information to a separate reader.

Handset quadrifilar helical antenna mechanical structures
United States US 7173576 B2
Issued February 6, 2007

A quadrifilar helical antenna comprising two pairs of filars having unequal lengths and phase quadrature signals propagating thereon.

Broadband adjustable match dipole antenna for embedded applications
United States US D530707 S1
Issued October 24, 2006

The ornamental design for a broadband adjustable match dipole antenna for embedded applications.

Antenna mounting system
United States US 6747603 B1
Issued June 8, 2004

Antenna mounting system
United States US 6509878 B1
Issued January 21, 2003

Publications

A Novel Technique for RF Voltage Measurements for Aperture Tuned Antenna. IEEE APS/URSI Symposium 2017

Closed Loop Aperture Tuning. Antenna Systems Conference 2016

Using RF MEMS Tuners for closed-loop aperture tuning to compensate for Hand/Head effect. International Microwave Symposium 2016.

Tunable RF Components and Circuits: Applications in Mobile Handsets CRC Press. Contributing author Chapter 6, Effective Antenna Aperture Tuning with RF MEMS

A Method to Design an Aperture-Tuned Antenna Using a MEMS Digital Variable Capacitor(Link) Microwave Journal

Radiated efficiency of aperture tuned antennas: Comparison of MEMS Digital Variable Capacitor and fixed ceramic capacitors(Link) IEE June 2014

Data throughput comparison between antenna pattern and spatial diversity in a practical 802.11n network implementation(Link) IEE July 17, 2010

Antenna challenges in smartphones and tablets with 4G rising(Link) EE Times

Isolated Mode Antenna Technology lets a single antenna offer the performance benefits of multiple antennas(Link) EE Times December 14, 2009

Design Considerations For Developing Active Antenna Solutions(Link) Antenna Systems & Technology

Aperture Tuned Antennas for 3G-4G Applications Using MEMS Digital Variable Capacitor IMS2013 June 6, 2013

Radiated Efficiency of Aperture Tuned Antennas: Comparison of MEMS Digital Variable Capacitor and Fixed Ceramic Capacitors IMS 2014 June 3, 2014

Reconfigurable small antenna for mobile phone using MEMS tunable capacitor 2013 Loughborough Antennas & Propagation Conference November 11, 2013

Industry Awards

The Linely Group: “Best Mobile Chip” for 2016

GSMA Global Mobile Awards: awarded “Best Network Technology Advance” for 2010

Tech Journal: named to the Tech 50 Technology Innovators for 2009

EE Times ACE Awarded iMAT named “Most Promising New Technology for 2008”

Fierce 15: SkyCross named as one of the Wireless Companies of 2008

Education

Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (June 1985) New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico