Bob Adams (engineer)

Bob Adams
Bob Adams
Born	Robert Whitlock Adams
Education	Tufts University (BS, 1976)
Known for	Sigma-delta modulation, Monolithic asynchronous sample rate converters, SigmaDSP
Title	Technical Fellow
Awards	National Academy of Engineering (2018); IEEE Pederson Award (2015); AES Silver Medal (1995); Electronic Design Hall of Fame (2011)
	Scientific career
Fields	Electrical engineering, Signal processing, Audio engineering
Workplaces	Analog Devices; dbx

Robert Whitlock Adams is a Technical Fellow at Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) in Wilmington, Massachusetts. His focus is on signal processing and analog-to-digital conversion for professional audio. He is a leader in the development of sigma-delta converters, introducing architectural advances including mismatch shaping, multi-bit quantization, and continuous-time architectures.

Adams graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Tufts University in 1976. From 1977 to 1988 he worked for DBX, a professional audio recording company. There, he helped develop the industry's first audio converter with greater than 16-bit resolution, as well as one of the earliest digital audio recorders. In 1988, he joined the Converter Group of Analog Devices as a Senior Staff Designer, and went on to develop ADI's first sigma-delta converters in partnership with Paul Ferguson. He produced the world's first monolithic asynchronous sample rate converters (the AD1890 family), and he created ADI's sigmaDSP line of audio-specific digital signal processing cores.

As of 1998, Adams had received 15 patents related to audio signal processing.

Awards and honors

Elected Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society (AES), 1991
Received AES Silver Medal Award, 1995
Included in Electronic Design magazine's Engineering Hall of Fame, 2011
Became a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2012 "for contributions to analog and digital signal processing"
Received the IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award, 2015 "for contributions to noise-shaping data converter circuits, digital signal processing, and log-domain analog filters"
Elected as a member into the National Academy of Engineering in 2018 for contributions to digital storage and reproduction of high-fidelity audio.

References

1 2 Olstein, K. (21 July 2014). "IEEE Fellow Robert Adams Wins 2015 Donald O. Pederson Award". Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Archived from the original on 18 October 2014. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
↑ Titus, Jon (18 March 2009). "Audio ADCs Hit the High Notes". ECN Magazine. Advantage Business Media. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
1 2 3 Tuite, Don (3 December 2011). "Bob Adams: Navigating The Sigma-Delta Roadmap". Electronic Design. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
1 2 3 4 Taranovich, Steve (16 July 2012). "Analog: Back to the future, part two". EDN Network. UBM Tech. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
↑ Adams, Robert; Nguyen, Khiem Q.; Sweetland, Karl (December 1998). "A 113-dB SNR Oversampling DAC with Segmented Noise-Shaped Scrambling" (PDF). IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits. 33 (12): 1878. Bibcode:1998IJSSC..33.1871A. doi:10.1109/4.735526. S2CID 25073383. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
1 2 "AES Awards". Audio Engineering Society. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
↑ "Engineering Hall of Fame 2011". Electronic Design. Archived from the original on 2014-10-18. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
↑ "IEEE Fellows Directory". Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
↑ "2012 Newly Elevated Fellows" (PDF). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 15, 2012. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
↑ "Mr. Robert W. Adams". National Academy of Engineering. Retrieved 21 September 2019.

[IEEE_2-1] 1 2 Olstein, K. (21 July 2014). "IEEE Fellow Robert Adams Wins 2015 Donald O. Pederson Award". Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Archived from the original on 18 October 2014. Retrieved 26 September 2014.

[ECN-2] Titus, Jon (18 March 2009). "Audio ADCs Hit the High Notes". ECN Magazine. Advantage Business Media. Retrieved 26 September 2014.

[ED_1-3] 1 2 3 Tuite, Don (3 December 2011). "Bob Adams: Navigating The Sigma-Delta Roadmap". Electronic Design. Retrieved 26 September 2014.

[EDN-4] 1 2 3 4 Taranovich, Steve (16 July 2012). "Analog: Back to the future, part two". EDN Network. UBM Tech. Retrieved 26 September 2014.

[IEEE_Journal-5] Adams, Robert; Nguyen, Khiem Q.; Sweetland, Karl (December 1998). "A 113-dB SNR Oversampling DAC with Segmented Noise-Shaped Scrambling" (PDF). IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits. 33 (12): 1878. Bibcode:1998IJSSC..33.1871A. doi:10.1109/4.735526. S2CID 25073383. Retrieved 30 October 2014.

[AES-6] 1 2 "AES Awards". Audio Engineering Society. Retrieved 16 October 2014.

[ED_2-7] "Engineering Hall of Fame 2011". Electronic Design. Archived from the original on 2014-10-18. Retrieved 26 September 2014.

[IEEE_1-8] "IEEE Fellows Directory". Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Retrieved 26 September 2014.

[Fellows2012-9] "2012 Newly Elevated Fellows" (PDF). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 15, 2012. Retrieved 5 February 2018.

[10] "Mr. Robert W. Adams". National Academy of Engineering. Retrieved 21 September 2019.