Our Services and Capabilities

Lance Lascari

President and principal consultant

When you hire RFdude.com for a project you receive unadulterated design and analysis services in the realm of applied research and development.  We appreciate the big picture and choose to operate where we can do our best work for you.  Our operation has extremely low overhead which allows us to be very responsive and efficient when compared to many larger firms.  We will gladly put you in touch with partners that can handle turnkey prototype production, project management and other services, but this is not where we operate.  Regular collaboration between our company and larger consulting and engineering service firms has been commonplace for several years.

 

A typical project involves designing a radio architecture, designing and prototyping circuit blocks, generating schematics, and working with partners or the client to create products.    We work to create reusable IP for our clients which they own.

 

The capabilities listed on this page are primarily those of the company Principal, Lance Lascari.   In cases where additional resources are needed (for reasons of schedule or technical expertise) we enlist the help of our network of other professionals.   

 

A list of our specialties:

• DC through millimeter-wave design & analysis
  •  modern wireless communications systems
    • point-point microwave telco radios (UHF through microwave, one-box, two box (IDU-ODU links and telemetry included))
    • point-multipoint broadband and telemetry
    • tactical military
    • space, deep-space communications
  • sensors
  • broadband/CATV systems
  • instrumentation
• Critical design reviews.
• Feasibility studies.
• Hardware design to support university research projects /studies.
• Low noise Oscillator and synthesizer design
• System architecture
• Proof-of-concept design and rapid prototyping
• Troubleshooting system level problems (spur sources, stability problems, RFI/EMC, etc.)
• Windows & embedded software (PIC, DSP, older processors, serial & USB interfacing)
• Regulatory and localization issues with wireless devices
• General help with short range unlicensed/ISM band products (design, debug, sanity checks).

Our design-for-production experience spans from tens of units a year to hundreds of thousands.  Design for manufacturing and test are always something we can help you with.  Please see Lance's resume page for more details.

Here are some example tasks that we can perform for your organization :

Short term projects

• Participate as an external reviewer for Engineering Design Reviews (both remotely and on-site).
• RF layout reviews (some high speed digital as well).
• amplifier, mixer, filter (lumped, distributed) design and prototyping.
• basic antenna designs & prototypes
• Synthesizer / VCO design help/troubleshooting.
• Reverse engineering
• Develop a customized analysis solution (MathCad, Octave, Excel, Genesys, Sonnet, etc).
• Research (component, competitor, etc.)
• Individual circuit design (LNA, PA, filter, mixer, VCO, synthesizer, multiplier, coupler.....).
• Fix EMC problems (radiated emissions, susceptibility, unintentional conducted emissions).
• RF site surveys/interference studies for wireless deployments.

Longer term projects

• Complete product design: System through circuit implementation
• RF system architecture, design, and critical component selection.
• Serve as key technical advisor throughout large and complex projects.
• Create RF hardware specifications from marketing requirements
• Developing custom software for test/characterization automation.

Recurring Services

• Availability for on-site design reviews or critique of electronic-form documentation such as schematics, layouts, block-diagrams.
• long term research in the interest of the client
• Providing limited training or technical briefing in particular subject areas.   This is not a core focus but has been requested several times so we are considering doing more of this work.  
• Applications engineering assistance (test circuits, creating simulation models, etc.).

Hardware capabilities

Software capabilities and resources