Curriculum Vitae

Education

• Silicon Photonics Design, Fabrication and Data Analysis – UBCx Course – April 2024 to Present
  • Project: Design of a Passive Silicon Photonic Mach-Zehnder-Modulator Lattice Filter
• PhD in Electrical Engineering – University of Calgary – GPA 4.0/4.0 – November 2022
  • Cryogenic Noise Parameter Measurement and the Design of Cryo-CMOS Low-Noise Amplifiers
  • Supervisor: Prof. Leonid Belostotski
• BSc in Electrical Engineering with distinction – University of Calgary – GPA 3.7/4.0 – April 2016

Industry Experience

• Analog Design Engineer – May 2022 to Present – NXP Semiconductors, Chandler, AZ
  • Experience with design in NXP 140-nm BCD, TSMC 40-nm BCD, and TSMC 16-nm FinFET.
  • Worked with verification teams to ensure proper interface to the subsystem.
  • Completed design reviews with the design team and a VIP customer to ensure confidence in designs.
  • Developed test plans for silicon validation and analyzed characterization data.
  • Consulted Reliability/ESD teams to co-design ESD in high-speed circuits.
  • USB 2.0 Products - CMOS
    • Designed analog data multiplexer
    • Designed high-speed single-ended to differential buffer for a 500 Mbaud serial receiver.
    • Designed low-noise 9-bit current-steering DAC.
  • 16-GHz Re-Driver – PCIe – BiCMOS
    • Designed circuit to detect the presence of far-end termination.
    • Designed custom t-coils to ensure a broadband match at IO pins.
    • Optimized continuous-time linear equalizer (CTLE) for better linearity and mid-band gain.

Academic Experience

• Research Associate – July 2024 to Present – McMaster University, Hamilton, ON
  • Developed design flows for optical waveguides and RF passive devices in CMOS.
  • Began design of a 10-Gb/s optical serial data link in TSMC 65-nm CMOS.
• Graduate Researcher – May 2016 to May 2022 – University of Calgary, Calgary, AB
  • Experience with design in TSMC 65-nm CMOS, GF 22-nm FDSOI, and GF 12-nm FinFET.
  • Developed a system to measure S-parameters and noise parameters at cryogenic temperatures.
  • Cryogenic low-noise amplifier in TSMC 65-nm CMOS for use on the Dominion Radio Astrophysics Observatory (DRAO) Synthesis Telescope.
    • Operates from 0.9 to 1.8 GHz, consumes 125 mW of power, an average gain of 37.2 dB, an input return loss greater than 10 dB, and a noise temperature (figure) of 2.3 K (0.03 dB).
    • Noise-matched low-power 10-GHz oscillator for use in quantum computers in 65-nm CMOS.
    • Simulated 6-dB lower phase noise than LC oscillator for a given power/tank inductance.
• Systems Engineer – December 2014 to April 2016 – Student Organization for Aerospace Research (SOAR), University of Calgary, Calgary, AB
  • Co-founded organization to assist students in finding research opportunities in aerospace fields.
  • Completed system and electrical design of a payload to find a correlation between VLF signature and gamma radiation from lightning strikes for the High-Altitude Student Platform supported by Louisiana State University (LSU) and NASA Balloon Program Office.
  • Supervised design of the electronic payload for a student rocket project for a competition.
• Instrument Design and Assembly Intern – May 2014 to August 2015 – an Array for Broadband VLF/ELF Emissions (ABOVE) group, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
  • Designed/tested PCBs for the ABOVE Low-Noise Amplifier and Analog to Digital Convertor.
  • Implemented a signal processing algorithm including a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) on an FPGA.
  • Assembled/deployed VLF/ELF antenna & receiver system to various sites across Canada.
  • Completed field diagnostics and repairs of VLF/ELF receiver and optical scientific instruments.

Start-Up Experience

• Electronics Engineer – December 2015 to October 2017 – BClean, Calgary, AB
  • Collaborated with the founding team to build a solution to increase hand hygiene compliance in healthcare settings.
  • Acquired preliminary funding to develop and manufacture this prototype for a pilot study.

Teaching Experience

• Supervised student intern at NXP through the design of a novel low-dropout regulator – 2024
• Teaching Assistant for first two years of a new integrated learning program for first-year engineering students – 2019 to 2020
• University of Calgary Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning Emerging Teachers Badge – 2020
• Two Graduate Courses in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SCIE 601/603) – 2019 to 2020
  • Used evidence-based teaching practices to develop a section of an undergraduate course on diodes and transistors and taught for a semester – 2020
• Lead Teaching Assistant for ENCM 467 (Digital Electronic Circuits) – 2017 to 2019
• Teaching Assistant for ENCM 467 (Digital Electronic Circuits) – 2016 to 2017

Service

• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
  • Chair, Solid-State Circuits Society Phoenix Chapter – 2022 to Present
  • Vice Chair, Solid-State Circuits Society Calgary Chapter – 2020 to 2022
  • Chair, Microwave Theory and Techniques University of Calgary Student Chapter – 2020 to 2022
• Journal/Conference Reviewer
  • IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement – 2022 to Present
  • IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems – 2024 to Present

Invited Talks

• Launching a Career in Analog Circuit Design: Tips Not Taught in School – March 2024
  • IEEE Young Professionals Webinar

Patents

• A. Sheldon, and S. Delshadpour, “A Passive Scheme to Trim/Tune Zero and Mid-Band Frequency of CTLE,” United States, 82347280, published.

Journal Papers

• A. Sheldon, and L. Belostotski, “A Cryo-CMOS Low-Noise Amplifier with 2.3-to-8.5-K Noise Temperature at 20 K for Highly Integrated Radio-Astronomy Receivers,” in IEEE Microwave and Wireless Component Letters, vol. 32, no. 11, pp. 1319-1322, 2022.
• A. Sheldon, L. Belostoski, H. Mani, C. E. Groppi, and K. F. Warnick, “Cryogenic Noise-Parameter Measurements: Recent Research and a Fully Automated Measurement Application,” in IEEE Microwave Magazine, vol. 22, no. 8, pp. 52-64, Aug. 2021.
• M. B. Elamien, A. Sheldon, B. J. Maundy, L. Belostotski and A. S. Elwakil, “Delay-Tunable Compact RC-Only All-Pass Filter,” in IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 461–464, May 2021.
• A. Sheldon, and L. Belostoski, “Noise-Parameter Measurements of Very-Low-Noise Amplifiers at Ambient and Cryogenic Temperatures,” in IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Magazine, vol. 24, no. 2, Apr. 2021.
• A. Sheldon, L. Belostotski, G. Messier and A. Madanayake, “Impact of Noise Bandwidth on Noise Figure,” in IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, vol. 68, no. 7, pp. 2662–2664, Jul. 2019.

Conference Papers & Posters

• A. Sheldon, L. Belostoski, H. Mani, C. E. Groppi, and K. F Warnick, “Automated Noise-Parameter Measurements of Cryogenic LNAs,” ARFTG Microwave Measurement Conference, 2021, pp. 1–4.
• A. Sheldon, and L. Belostotski, “Cryo-CMOS Low-Noise Amplifier for the Square Kilometre Array,” International Symposium on Antenna Technology and Applied Electromagnetics (ANTEM), Waterloo, ON, Canada, 2018, pp. 1-2.
• A. Sheldon, A. Melethil, B. Besler, D. Garrett, G. Longpre, T. Saunders, “SDR A LA HAM: A Software Defined Radio Transceiver for use with a Mobile Phone,” 2016 Capstone Design Conference, Columbus, OH, USA, 2017.
• C. Quinn, A. Sheldon, C. M. Cully, A. Davalos, C. Osakwe, D. Galts, J. Delfin, C. Duffin, J. Mansell, M. Russel, M. Bootsma, R. Williams, M. Patrick, M. L. Mazzino, and D. J. Knudsen “Gamma Ray and Very Low Frequency Radio Observations from a Balloon-Borne Platform,” vol. 2015, Art. no. AE33A-0469, 2015.
• C. M. Cully, D. Chaddock, C. Daniel, E. Davis, D. Galts, N. McGuffin, C. Quinn, A. Sheldon, and C. Wilson, “Early Results on Energetic Particle Precipitation Observed by the ABOVE Instrument Array,” vol. 2014, Art. no. SA13B-3997, 2014.

Funding and Research Awards

• IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Graduate Fellowship Award (2020) – $20,000 USD
• National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Canada Graduate Scholarship Doctoral (CGS-D) (2020) – Awarded to top 13 Electrical Engineering PhDs in Canada – $105,000 CAD
• One of twenty IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society Rising Stars – Travel Award + ISSCC 2020 registration
• Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship Doctoral (2019) – $10,000 CAD
• Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship Master’s (2017) – $5,000 CAD
• University of Calgary Graduate Student Association (GSA) Innovation Development Award (2016) – $4,000 + start-up mentoring from Innovate Calgary
• NSERC Canadian Graduate Scholarship Master’s (CGS-M) (2016) – $17,500 CAD

Technical Skills

• Analog/RF/mixed-signal circuit design and layout: Cadence Virtuoso, Keysight ADS
• Digital circuit design: Verilog
• Electromagnetic (EM) simulations: Cadence (Integrand) EMX, Keysight Momentum, Ansys HFSS
• Circuit and system design/analysis: MATLAB, Python
• High-speed PCB design: Altium Designer, Diptrace
• Analog/mixed-signal modeling: Verilog-A/MS, Verilog
• RF measurements up to 26 GHz: S-parameters, noise parameters, load-pull, spectrum analysis
• Ball/wedge die bonding in package and die-on-board
• Surface-mount soldering: reflow, hand-soldering down to QFN/0402
• Linux system administration: CAD/PDK administration, shell scripting

Other Information

• Canadian Amateur Radio Advanced (VA6ALX)
• United States Amateur Radio Extra (AA7WS)
• Extra-Life: Yearly 25-hour Marathon Gaming Fundraiser for the Phoenix Children’s Hospital – 2022 to Present