Alain Laprade
About Alain Laprade
Alain Laprade is a Senior Applications Engineer at ON Semiconductor, where he has worked since 2010. He specializes in power circuit analysis and has developed simulation tools, reference designs, and product roadmaps throughout his career.
Work at ON Semiconductor
Alain Laprade has been employed at ON Semiconductor as a Senior Applications Engineer since 2010. In this role, he has developed SPICE and Mathcad based simulation tools specifically for power circuit analysis. His responsibilities include creating reference designs for various topologies, such as synchronous buck converters, LCD backlighting, and pre-boost converters tailored for stop/start alternator applications. Laprade collaborates with Business Management and Applications to maintain product roadmaps and has been involved in negotiating system specifications with customers and IC designers.
Previous Experience at Fairchild Semiconductor
Before joining ON Semiconductor, Alain Laprade worked at Fairchild Semiconductor as an Automotive Applications Engineer from 1998 to 2010. During his 12 years there, he focused on developing automotive-related applications and contributed to competitive positioning and intellectual property generation activities. His experience in this role laid the groundwork for his subsequent work in power circuit analysis and design.
Education and Expertise
Alain Laprade holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Power Option and a Master of Engineering in Power Electronics, both from McGill University in Montréal. He completed his undergraduate studies from 1979 to 1982 and his graduate studies from 1983 to 1987. His educational background provides a solid foundation in power electronics, which he applies in his current role as a Senior Applications Engineer.
Technical Contributions and Projects
In his professional career, Alain Laprade has developed new product ideas and roadmaps aimed at achieving high reliability and low total solution costs in PWM controller and converter IC architecture. He has conducted trade-off studies to determine optimal system architectures and solutions for various subsystems. Additionally, he has established technical projects to address identified gaps for future architectures, focusing on efficiency, cost, size, and compliance with regulatory environments.