Peter Grossmann

FPGA Architecture and CAD Lead

Waltham, Massachusetts, United States

About

Experienced, R&D oriented PhD level digital integrated circuit designer. Deep expertise in FPGA architecture and CAD, and broad experience across all aspects of digital circuit design from concept to first silicon test.

Experience

  • Principal Engineer at Zero ASIC
    May 2022 - Present · 4 yrs 2 mos

    Chief architect of FPGA chiplets. Develop automation techniques for end-to-end flow of FPGA circuits from high level description to GDSII format. Enable turnkey implementation of FPGAs and associated CAD support for RTL-to-bitstream flows required by FPGA end users. Lead other engineers in development of all hardware and software models required to productize FPGA chiplets.

  • Intrinsix Corp. (3 yrs 2 mos)
    • Solutions Architect, Advanced R&D
      Apr 2021 - May 2022 · 1 yr 2 mos

      Co-lead multi-organization team performing government sponsored research developing pre-silicon side channel analysis vulnerability detection software and related ASIC design tasks. Present work to research program sponsors. Mentor junior engineers. Work with company business development teams to market ASIC design R&D capabilities. Develop technical volume content for R&D grant proposals.

    • Principal Consulting Engineer
      Apr 2019 - Apr 2021 · 2 yrs 1 mo

      Lead government sponsored research programs developing electronic design automation (EDA) flows for quantifiable assurance of integrated circuits.

  • Techincal Staff at MIT Lincoln Laboratory
    Jun 2013 - Mar 2019 · 5 yrs 10 mos

    Technical Lead, DARPA ReImagine program. Along with program managers, lead a team of six engineers developing invention of field programmable imaging array (FPIA). Train hardware lead in architecture of FPGAs integrated with image sensing hard macros. Train software lead in adapting open source FPGA CAD software to meet FPIA requirements. Define FPIA use model and develop example applications serving as tutorials. Present technical data to program sponsor and program peformers. Assist group and division management in development of future programs in semiconductor and superconducting circuit design and electronic design automation (EDA). Patent applications in progress for DARPA ReImagine activity. Previous projects included: Lead EDA support and digital design activities supporting research in cryogenic CMOS circuits. Lead internally funded continuation of Ph.D. research, including design, fabrication, test, packaging, and PCB board integration of subthreshold FPGAs. Lead other staff in development of process design kit (PDK) for novel Lincoln process technologies. Design and characterize standard cell libraries for near-threshold and subthreshold operation. Design and fabricate test chips for novel process technologies fabricated at Lincoln. Perform design studies for ultra-low power digital circuits for biomedical, cybersecurity, and RFID applications. Present research results at conferences.

  • MIT Lincoln Laboratory (Lexington, MA)
    • Lincoln Scholar
      Sep 2009 - Apr 2013 · 3 yrs 8 mos

      Fabricated subthreshold FPGA test chip with record-low single supply voltage operation of 0.26V. Performed the first multi-benchmark minimum energy analysis study of FPGAs in simulation with novel CAD tool flow. Published results in IEEE journal.

    • Associate Staff
      Mar 2007 - Sep 2009 · 2 yrs 7 mos

      Lead designer on three readout integrated circuits (ROICs) for use in advanced imaging systems. Write FPGA firmware for ROIC control used in first silicon test. Design and verify ICs using Cadence, Mentor EDA tools. Write documentation, hold design reviews.

  • ASIC Design Engineer at Zilog
    Oct 2001 - Jul 2004 · 2 yrs 10 mos

    Participate in design, verification, and production-test bring-up for high-performance 8-bit microcontrollers. Implement feature enhancements and bug fixes on product family RTL databases. Support test engineers in debug of production test vectors. Use test boards and software to debug silicon functional behavior and verify power requirements are met. Design, debug, and write documentation for test logic on 8-pin microcontroller.