David A.

Kapolka
5856 Cliffside Drive
Troy, MI 48085
(248) 990-5945
[email protected]

Skills and Qualifications Summary:

• Over 100 PCB designs: Requirements to schematic to artwork to prototype to

manufacturing to customer. ASIC definition, implementation, and testing.
• High-speed digital designs meeting international regulations for electromagnetic
immunity and emissions.
• Mass produced automotive safety electronics PCB design and project engineering.
• Extensive DFMEA and EMC planning and testing experience conforming to Toyota, Honda,
Ford, Chrysler, and GM standards.
• Worst case analysis and design with Mathcad, Maple, Matlab, and Pspice software tools.
• 32-bit, 16-bit, and 8-bit hardware and software designs based upon ARM, Cypress, Dallas,
Freescale, Intel, Infineon, Microchip, Renesas, Silicon Labs, and Texas Instruments micros.
• 20 years of embedded real-time Assembler and C programming experience.
• Over 100 FPGAs designed with VHDL, Verilog, and schematic-entry tools.
• Power analog designs driving actuators, solenoids, servomotors, squibs, steppers, lamps,
LEDs.
• Analog designs sensing, processing, and amplifying pressure, temperature, humidity, audio
and video.
• RF designs for tire pressure, remote start, remote keyless entry, home automation (Zig-
Bee 802.15.4) and 802.11g wifi.
• Mixed signal design incorporating high-speed digital, RF, power, and analog, on the same
PCB.
• iPhone audio design with emphasis to protect against and eliminate TDMA noise for the
listener.
• Experience with the following design tools:

Adobe Creative Suite* Mathematica Microsoft Project

Altera Quartus II Matlab Microsoft Visio*
Altium Designer* Mentor Graphics DxDesigner* Simulink
Cadence Orcad* Mentor Graphics PADS* Solidworks
Cadence Pspice* Mentor Graphics Expedition* Synario
Maple Mentor Graphics DMS Timing Designer
Mathcad* Microsoft Office* Xilinx ISE Design Suite

*expert—beyond working knowledge.

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 David A. Kapolka
5856 Cliffside Drive
Troy, MI 48085
(248) 990-5945
[email protected]

Professional Experience:

DAK Consulting, Troy, MI. 2009 to Present. Principal and Lead Engineer.

Staff Electrical Engineer Mar 2022 - 2023

South San Francisco, California, United States
Stafl Systems · Full-time

ADAS Engineer - Dec 2019 - Mar 2022

Ford Motor Company
F-150 driver assist system research and development.F-150 driver assist system
research and development.

Electrical Engineer - May 2017 - Nov 2019

Trico Products
F-150 reversing wiper motor, electronics, and software system simulation, test, and
design.

JAC Products Inc., Pontiac, MI, 2014-2015.

360 degree surround-view automotive camera system architecture, design, and
implementation. Chief architect of a four camera roof-rack based driver assist and
security video system. Image sensor selection, programming and hardware design.
Roof-rack LED-lighting hardware and software design.

Igniteless LLC, Detroit, MI, 2013-2015.

Project management, hardware and software design and development of a 3V, optical,
wireless (Zig-Bee, 802.15.4) smoke detector and gas/electric stove shutoff system based
on the Atmel ATmega256RF micro. Additionally I am sourcing components and
handling all regulatory (UL and FCC) testing.

Visteon Corporation, Van Buren Township, MI, 2013.

Research and development for flexible automotive touch-screen liquid crystal displays
using silver nano-wire transparent conductor technology. Development of gesture based
human-machine-interface electronics.

Autoliv Corporation, Southfield, MI, 2012-2013.

Aid in development of the eighth-generation airbag/restraints ASIC. Develop test
fixtures. Create software algorithms for the saving function of the ASIC. EMC testing.

GHI Electronics, Macomb Township, MI, 2012.

800MHz ARM Cortex-A8 system-on-a-board design using the Freescale i.MX50 processor.

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 David A. Kapolka
5856 Cliffside Drive
Troy, MI 48085
(248) 990-5945
[email protected]

The PCB will be the flagship high-end main-board for the GHI Electronics FEZ Gadgeteer
products. (www.ghielectronics.com)

Pi-Shurlok LLC, Plymouth, MI, 2010-2011.

Automotive and military electronics design for the Pi-Shurlok LLC OpenECU based
architecture using the Freescale MPC5534 Power PC 32-bit CPU core. Applications
include front and rear differential lock topologies for single and dual axle military and
industrial vehicles.

Myine Electronics, Ferndale, MI, 2009.

Design and development of the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show award winning Abbee
FM radio and MP3 recording device from Myine Electronics. New product development
for the Abbee2--an iPhone dock with AM/FM receiver that records music from the radio
and stores it on the iPhone. It uses USB 2.0 and the Analog Devices BlackFin DSP running
micro-C Linux.

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 David A. Kapolka
5856 Cliffside Drive
Troy, MI 48085
(248) 990-5945
[email protected]

Code Systems, Inc. Troy, MI. 2008 to 2009

Project Engineer. Design and develop automotive wireless remote start systems for
aftermarket applications. Work with Asian manufacturers to build products and
prototypes. Manage projects from quote to production. Aid in software development and
mechanical engineering.

Compact Power, Inc. Troy, MI. 2007 to 2008

Electrical Engineer. Design and develop the electronics to monitor the 400V lithium-ion
battery pack for the GM-Chevrolet Volt electric vehicle. Developed the company’s
document management system for engineering drawings. Selected suppliers for the Volt
battery pack system wiring.

TRW Automotive Electronics, Farmington Hills, MI. 2003 to 2007

Senior Product Engineer, Electrical, Occupant Safety Systems, Toyota Group. RF and
Electronic module design, testing, and validation for Toyota Tire Pressure Monitoring
System. Team leader coordinating the mechanical engineering, software engineering,
CAD, configuration management, validation testing, systems, quality, and manufacturing
groups. RF design and FCC testing of both transmitters and receivers. ISO9141, J1850
and CAN development. Green Belt certification. Working knowledge of the Toyota Way
with mass production designs shipping on the Toyota Tundra, Sienna, and Sequoia.

Electronic module design, testing, and validation for the Toyota Airbag Group.

Electronic module design, testing, and validation for the Honda Tire Pressure Monitoring
group. PCB design, semiconductor modeling, and circuit simulation of low frequency (125
kHz) transmitters and receivers. TPM initiator design is on the Acura MDX, Honda Accord
and Honda Pilot. Managed and coordinated manufacturing and outsourcing.

Hitachi Automotive Products, Farmington Hills, MI. 2001 to 2002

Senior Electrical Engineer. Automotive embedded microprocessor control module

development for four-wheel-drive torque transfer systems. Analog circuit design,
modeling, and simulation. Write, maintain, and update project schedules. Write
specifications, DFMEAs, DVP&Rs, and EMC test plans. Perform DVP&R and EMC testing of
automotive control modules for use in domestic, European, and Far East markets.
Interface with customers and suppliers. Develop fiber-optic CAN and J1850 serial
communication circuits and observe bus traffic in an EMC test environment. Mentor new
engineers.

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 David A. Kapolka
5856 Cliffside Drive
Troy, MI 48085
(248) 990-5945
[email protected]

General Dynamics Land Systems (Contract), Sterling Heights, MI. 2000 to 2001

Senior Electrical Engineer. M1A2 Abrams SEP Main Battle Tank. Use Pspice to model and
simulate semiconductors used in the power and display systems (including temperature,
tolerance, and nuclear effects) Use MATLAB to model, simulate and optimize a real-time
electro-mechanical hydraulic system. Debug real-time PowerPC based VME-bus and MIL-
1553 systems to help production meet deliveries. Interface with suppliers. Investigate
new flat-panel display technologies, and design lab prototypes for demonstration.

Advanced Systems & Designs, Troy, MI. 1998 to 2000

Research & Development Manager/Engineer. Investigate new technologies and

incorporate them into the existing and new products. Design electrical and mechanical
hardware for new products. Write software for new and existing products. Manage
design outsourcing and manufacturing outsourcing. Develop the company’s web
presence and maintain the company’s Windows NT server and internet connection.

Optical Imaging Systems, Northville, MI. 1998

Design and development of military and aeronautical flat panel active matrix thin film
transistor displays.

Federal APD, Novi, MI. 1997 to 1998

Project Engineer. Team leader and electronics designer for a credit card magnetic stripe
reader. Designed the electronics for a parking-lot ticket dispenser with a magnetic-stripe
reader, thermal print head, and optical sensors. Improved the quality of existing products
by re-designing PCBs for improved manufacturability and better reliability.

Programmable Designs, Ann Arbor, MI. 1996 to 1997

Electrical Engineer. C programming and Xilinx FPGA design for a 68HC11-based engine
misfire generator. Hardware design for an Intel 80C32-based controller board. Signal
integrity analysis for a 66MHz Intel 486 DX2 motherboard. Timing analysis for an Intel
i960-based SCSI/VME Bus machine vision system.

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 David A. Kapolka
5856 Cliffside Drive
Troy, MI 48085
(248) 990-5945
[email protected]

Unisys Corporation, Plymouth, MI. 1989 to 1996

Electrical Engineer. Reverse engineered a commercial Hewlett Packard ink jet printer
and then designed it into the DP500 check processing machine. Unisys sells large check
sorter machines for banks and insurance companies. These large machines incorporate
many technologies. I have experience with DC motor design, stepper motor design,
magnetic ink character recognition hardware design, optical character recognition
hardware and software design, switching-mode power supplies, linear power supplies,
microfilm camera design, infrared LED design, DSP design, CCD video camera design, jpeg
image compression, CCITT image compression, high speed serial communications and
networking. Designed PCI bus and ISA bus hardware and software around Intel 8051-
family micro controllers and Xilinx FPGAs. Developed real-time software algorithms for
various printer functions in Assembler programming language.

Engineer/Associate Engineer/Co-op Engineer. Re-designed and cost-reduced microfilm

camera electronics to improve reliability and PCB yields. Multiple cost reduction
programs using newest IC technology.

Department of Electrical Engineering, Michigan State University. 1990 to 1991

Electronics Laboratory Technician. Designed lab tests to collect data on analog IC’s, which
was used to develop Spice macro-models for computer simulation.

Education:

• B.S. Electrical Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. June 1991
• Additional graduate level electrical and computer engineering courses at Michigan State
University, The University of Michigan, and Wayne State University. GPA: 4.0/4.0.
• Continuous education at the University of Michigan with respect to antenna design and
through San Diego State University with regard to digital signal processing.
• Additional classes to minimize electromagnetic interference taught by researchers from
Hewlett Packard/Agilent and Kimmel Gerke Associates.

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