About the Author

Larry Brown

Over thirty years of experience in product development, mostly in optical systems. I have created system specifications, designed lens systems, written software, designed analog and digital circuits and optomechanical components, often as chief engineer responsible for a team of software, electrical and mechanical engineers, designers and technicians. Brought a number of products to market by supervising, problem solving, training and participating in the process all the way from field sales demonstrations, supplier specifications and negotiations through inventory, assembly, testing, documentation, customer training, service and more

Education

BS Physics, Fordham University, New York City, 1974.
MS Physics, Fordham University, New York City, 1975.
MS Biophysics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, 1977.
New York State Certification in Teaching, State University of New York, Brockport.
Graduate courses in Optics, University of Rochester, Institute of Optics, Rochester, New York 1979.
Variety of short courses in Laser Systems Design, Project Management, Geometric
Dimensioning and Tolerancing

Employment

20092011, Principal Systems Engineer, FARO, PA:Serve in the role of optical engineer, support engineer for manufacturing, and primary problem solver for system level problems on the new Chimera tracker, as well as developer of the Corona 6 DOF camera. Have solved numerous problems related to the use of multiwavelength correction of optical systems, optical fiber stressinduced phase error, and extension of the range of the existing ION tracker. Designed the new optical system for the chimera tracker.

19962009. Optical Systems Consultant, Brown Optronics Corporation (self employed):
Worked at firms such as Kulicke and Soffa, Fort Washington, PA designing lens systems for high speed microscopes used in automatic wire bonding machines, MTS Systems Corp, Eden Prairie, MN designing systems for laser guided robotic welding, AccuSort Systems, Telford PA, designing lenses for use in high speed bar code reading equipment, Datacolor International, Lawrenceville, NJ designing color measurement spectrophotometer equipment, Confero of Valley Forge, PA (Division of Johannes Heidenhain) and FARO Technologies, Kennett Square, PA designing an optical fiberbased, absolute distance tracker, and aiding in support of the growing manufacturing department. Received numerous patents for design work, assigned to this variety of companies

19921996. Vice President, SMX Corporation, Kennett Square, PA :
Responsible for all aspects of the development of laser based dimensional measurement products. Managed a team of electrical, software and mechanical engineers through the development and support of the laser tracker. Formed manufacturing department, and grew the line from 6 sales per year to over 30, resulting in sales increase of over $4 million. Solved a number of technical problems related to high speed encoder interpolation electronics, precision bearings, shielding and grounding, polarization effects of thin film optical coatings, centroid determination of Gaussian beams and athermalization of optical mounting structures. Analysis of tracker data and development of algorithms for kinematic modeling of beam motions within the tracker’s rotating optical system.

19841992. President, Vice President, Director of Engineering, Chesapeake Laser Systems, Lanham, MD:
Was the first engineer to join the company, and helped to grow it from a $100,000 firm into a $1.5 million dollar firm by creation and management of a team of engineers who developed three new products: the laser triangulation gauge, the laser profile gauge, and the laser tracking interferometer. Developed experience related to CCD Arrays, faraday rotators, frequency stabilized HeNe lasers, directdrive brushless DC servo motors, digital control systems and optical phase detection. Traveled to secure Sales, perform engineering support and conduct training. Served one year as President of the firm, and secured the sale of it to the SMX Corporation, a former customer.

19821984. Principal Test Engineer. Engineering Supervisor, Litton Amecom Division, College Park, MD: Developed manual and automatic test fixtures for military and government digital facsimile products made for secure transmission of sensitive documents. Also worked on production test equipment for the passive detection system of the EA6B aircraft and test methods for shipboard radio equipment.

19781982 Test Engineer, Project Engineer, Tropel (division of Coherent), Fairport, NY:
Designed and developed a variety of OEM laser scanning systems based on high speed, synchronous motor driven polygon scanners; acoustooptic modulators and Helium Neon lasers. Invented and published a unique laser zoom lens system used in these products and developed a cylindrical mirror for correction of pyramidal error in laser scanning systems of this nature. Developed Gaussian beam analysis software and high speed photodetector circuitry for use in component testing

Patents and Publications

Listing can be obtained on request.

Over 25 patents in the field of laser based tracking, measuring and ranging systems and patent awards for work in color measurement systems and high speed wire bonding equipment.

References

Addresses can be obtained on request.
1. John Hoffer, former Director of Engineering, FARO Technologies
2. James West, former CTO, FARO Technologies
3. David Beatson, from SMX, Kulicke & Soffa, and Confero (Heidenhain)
4. David Slocum, from SMX and Datacolor
5. Edward Chaleff, from Accusort
6. D. Scott Ackerson, from SMX
7. J. Bradford Merry, from Chesapeake Laser Systems
8. Peter Emmel, from Tropel