Professor Peter Ivey PhD BSc(Hons) QDR MInstD Snr MIEEE

Peter has over 30 years of wide-ranging experience in the electronics industry.  He spent 15 years at BT Labs working on projects as diverse as high reliability transistors for submarine cables and computer aided design.  In 1977, he set up an operation to accelerate the design of integrated circuits. In 1980, his early work led to the formation of a team of over 30 people which was given the task of developing new methods for design of systems on silicon.  For exceptional performance, Peter was merit promoted to the Senior Band within BT, an honour awarded to a very small number of BT staff.

In 1989, Peter became a professor at the University of Sheffield and set up the Electronic Systems Group in the Department of Electronic Engineering.  In the 1996 and subsequent Government assessments of university research, the Department was given the highest grade (5*).

Peter has a wide range of research, development and industrial interests in electronic and microelectronic systems design including circuit packaging, image processing, video compression using conventional board level and custom components and multimedia systems.  In 1993, Peter and Dr Andy Houghton invented the World’s first truly digital microphone, which has been patented in both Europe and the US.  Peter is the co-author of over 90 publications including six patents.

In 1996 Peter was a founder and a major shareholder in Infinite Designs Ltd, a design-house specialising in image processing and video systems design, which was purchased by ARM plc in 2000 and is now the ARM Sheffield Design Centre.

Companies and organisations with which Peter has worked include BT, Zarlink, GEC-Plessey Semiconductors, Alcatel Espace, Thomson CSF, Thomson TMS, 3-D Plus SA, S-T Microelectronics, Atmel, Dassault, Telenorma (Bosch Telecom), Symbol Technologies, Marconi, GEC, Mitel Semiconductor, ARM, Tunstall, Hg Capital, Patientline, Hawkpoint, ING Barings, MSA, Xaar, Multicore Solders Ltd, MSTB Ltd, Promatech Ltd, Philips, UK Trade & Investment and LETI together with a wide range of City and international law firms and financial institutions.

Peter has been both a technical and business advisor to the Department of Trade and Industry and has been involved in their “Microelectronics in Business” and “Electronics Design” Programmes since the earliest stages in 1990.  These programmes were set up by the DTI to help small companies incorporate electronics in their products.  Peter continues to work with the DTI on the evaluation of proposals for the Technology Programme and Nanotechnology Initiative.  Peter has also worked with the European Commission for over 20 years both evaluating proposals and reviewing running projects.

Peter has undertaken due diligence investigations, strategic appraisals and corporate restructuring assignments for a wide range of companies in the electronics, microelectronics, electronic component and consumer electronics industries, on behalf of venture capital companies, investment institutions and government departments.  Peter’s experience in technical due diligence includes:

• Analysis of technology, manufacturing and business plans for a very wide range (over 200) companies as a business and technology advisor to the DTI Electronics Design programme. Products range from simple electro-mechanical to complex microelectronic products.
• Grant assessment for the DTI’s Micro/Nanotechnology Initiative and Technology Programme
• Evaluation of the feasibility of new semiconductor technologies for commercial applications and the viability of the company prior to further substantial investment.
• Technical due diligence for the acquisition of a company in the healthcare market, covering a wide range of technologies and products.
• Evaluation of the availability of semiconductor technologies for high performance networking products.
• Long-term post-investment evaluation and advice on technology and design processes for the Board of Patientline PLC (symbol PTL) and their investors from 2000, through flotation on the AIM in 2001 and transfer to the Official List in 2003, to successful installation of their T2 systems in 2004.
• Review over a period of 2 years of a funded project to develop a new Flash EEPROM technology for use in mobile phones.
• Evaluation of technologies for the semiconductor implementation of ATM, IP and other high-performance network technologies over VDSL for the provision of high performance customer premises connections. 
• Analysis of the business plan and the technical/manufacturing viability of a battery company prior to substantial government investment.
• Evaluation of the validity of patents in SiGe bipolar technologies and analysis of their potential for/sources of revenue generation
• Reviewer, over a period of 4 years, of a project funded to develop a new radiation-hard technology for space applications. 
• Six reviews over a period of 3 years of a European funded project to develop an image sensor for industrial applications. 
• Evaluation of the technology and advice to a multinational client of TWI regarding the packaging of the electronics contained in an industrial tool for use in harsh environments (moisture and potentially corrosive dust ingress).

Peter has carried out expert witness work for a number of international law firms.  He has provided expert testimony in a wide range of cases and has significant courtroom experience. He has been responsible for complex intellectual property analysis of devices including semiconductors, memory chips, microprocessors and busses, and has worked on a number of breach of contract cases involving embedded software and complex optical, mechanical and electronic equipment.

Peter has a BSc and PhD in Physics, is a Senior Member of the IEEE and is a member of the Institute of Directors.  He is also a member of the Academy of Experts and is a qualified Commercial Mediator.  Peter is an Honorary Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Durham.