Agilent Fellow Joel Dunsmore on art of test & measurement

The son of bakers proved to be a quick study at an early age.

"When I was young, I rode to work at 5 a.m. a lot with my folks," said Agilent Fellow Joel Dunsmore, that quick study. "Dad said it's a lot easier to make money with your head than your back."

And so, at 13, pulling an electronics book from a library shelf, Dunsmore set out to do just that, chart a course for a career outside of kneading and yeast and baking ovens. After reading that book--50 electrical DIY projects that today Dunsmore jokes would be considered "child abuse"--he wired his father's bakery with features like an electronic timer for his ovens.


He parlayed that fascination with electronics into a career with HP/Agilent in test and measurement, that includes two dozen patents, innovations in other areas and spot among EE Times' industry visionaries.  For Dunsmore, it's turned into a career in test that seems tougher and tougher problems to solve, not just in measurement science but in integrating functions into systems to make customers' jobs easier, more moveable and flexible.

Something to believe in

“It used to be that our customers would buy our equipment and put lots and lots of it into big racks, and then try to write their own programs,” Dunsmore said in earlier interview. “More and more, we’re trying to replace those custom test racks with standard test racks. To do that, we have to have really good measurement science so we can give them measurements they believe in.” 

Over his 32 years at HP/Agilent--starting as an intern--Dunsmore's innovations include:

• Vector mixer measurement, a calibration method that made measurements of frequency-converter delay faster and simpler.
• Embedded local oscillator application, which extended mixer techniques to satellite test.
• True-mode differential measurement, which was some of the earliest work on making real-world measurements on balanced devices (devices that have two pins on either the input, the output, or both).
• Automatic port extension, which provided a simple method for customers to compensate for test fixtures in their balanced (mixed-mode) measurements.
• Compression calibration, which extended the usable range of Agilent receivers beyond anything competitors could do.
• Intermodulation spectrum mode, a digital processing technique that allows a network analyzer to act like an image-free spectrum analyzer.

At 39, relatively late in life, Dunsmore decided to obtain a Ph.D.