Dr Brian Minnis received a BSc (Hons) in Electronics and a PhD in Exact Network Synthesis from the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK. He joined Philips Research Laboratories in Redhill to work on the design of microwave filters and integrated circuits for electronic warfare applications. In the course of his research, he became a pioneer of the use of exact synthesis techniques for microwave circuit design and is widely recognised as an expert in the field.
After 15 years in microwave-component research, Dr Minnis moved into the flourishing new area of wireless systems. He built up a team of scientists studying radio transceiver design for cordless and cellular telephone applications, dealing with the whole system problem from architecture through to circuit design. This led to the first commercial exploitation of the low-IF concept for integrated receivers in DECT and GSM mobile products. Later innovations included highly-digitised transceiver architectures realised in deep-submicron CMOS technology. Efficiency enhancement techniques for PAs in multi-mode transmitters also received much attention. Recent studies have focussed on the RF system architecture of a software-defined radio (SDR) for 4G mobile phones.
As a Research Fellow within Philips Research, Dr Minnis assumed responsibility for a major part of the research programme on RF. In early 2006 he briefly headed the 35-man strong Wireless Group in Redhill before joining NXP Semiconductors to take up a new position as Department Head, NXP Research. Here he led the RF Systems and Architecture (RFSA) Group with a challenging research programme on wireless solutions for cellular, connectivity and broadcast products.
Dr Minnis has published over 45 papers in the literature and filed over 50 patents. He is a former member of the Technical Programme Committee for the EuMC and a regular reviewer of papers for the IEEE Transactions on MTT.
He is now operating as an Independent Technical Consultant (RFSA Consulting)