ROBERT E. MALM, Ph.D

ATTORNEY AT LAW

CLAIMCRAFTED™ PATENT APPLICATIONS

The practice of patent law is my second career after a long and productive first career in the technical arena. My first career involved a wide variety of research and development activities in electronics focused on devices, techniques, and systems with operating frequencies ranging from VLF to visible light and culminating in eighteen patents. I am a member of the California Bar and a registered patent attorney with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

I received a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and a Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I received the J.D. degree from the University of West Los Angeles.

While I was in charge of a laboratory at the Northrop Research and Technology Center I was responsible for research in the information sciences and the development of concepts and techniques having to do with the generation, transmission, utilization, and display of information. I supervised holographic research aimed at developing a photographic terrain model that could be viewed in 3-D with ordinary light and without the need for viewing accessories. I was also concerned with vibration analysis as a means of predicting the mechanical failure of rotating machinery, voice analysis and synthesis techniques, and interactive computer-graphics.

For a number of years I concentrated on developing concepts and techniques applicable to communication, command, and control including anti-jam communication/navigation systems for application in multi-user tactical environments, adaptive antenna array processors, hybrid phase and frequency modulation techniques combined with adaptive demodulators that can provide optimal communications in either fading or non-fading signal environments, digital coherent phase demodulators for the reception of burst-type communication signals, and low-cost anti-jam modems making extensive use of charge-coupled-device and microprocessor technologies.

I was also responsible for the design and development of large-scale integrated circuits and microprocessor-based computational systems for the precise readout and frame integration of CID-type infrared detector arrays.

During a special assignment, I invented a high-gain, wide-aperture, electronically-steerable, millimeter-wave phased array for airborne applications based on micro-machining and integrated circuit processing techniques. In the course of this assignment I performed a study and analysis of visible-light imaging radars for submarine detection.

Earlier, while I was Vice President and Director of the Research and Development Directorate of Page Communication Engineers, a subsidiary of Northrop, I was responsible for all of Page's research and development activities, both contractual and company-sponsored. My organization performed studies, developed concepts, and designed and built hardware for the purpose of demonstrating feasibility of electronic systems and techniques. Among the studies performed during my tenure were the CASOFF study for the Air Force Systems Command and the HARR study for the Army Electronics Command. The CASOFF study involved the conceptual deve1opment of a position determination and communication system for the real-time position monitoring and control of tactical aircraft. The HARR study involved the study of airborne platforms and radio relay techniques with the objective of defining the best relay-platform configurations for extending jungle communication ranges over difficult terrain.

The Page R & D Directorate, under my direction, developed and implemented a number of new concepts, including: (1) an all-digital adaptive data modem for HF and wire line applications; (2) a tracking-filter type threshold-extension FM demodulator which was used in a number of communication satellite ground terminals; (3) digital modulation/demodulation equipment for transmitting digital data at megabits/sec rates over troposcatter links; (4) an anti-jam direction-finding and ranging communication system for tactical applications; (5) spread-spectrum tactical communication equipment incorporating an ensemble correlator for rapid synchronization; (6) an all-digital spectrum analyzer for HF signal analysis; and (7) a special-purpose computer for electronic control of antenna array patterns.

Many years ago, I was Manager of the Information Systems Department of Texas Instruments' Apparatus Division where I was responsible for planning and executing a broadly-based research and development program in support of military electronics requirements in two areas: communications and electromagnetic warfare. Communications activities emphasized anti-jam, secure, adaptive, high-capacity systems. Primary activity in electromagnetic warfare had to do with new approaches to the analysis, processing, recording and display of intercepted signals as well as more effective techniques for jamming and deception.

Prior to my TI activities, I was responsible for research in the physical and mathematical aspects of communication for Sylvania Electron Systems (which became part of GT&E). Among the systems I conceived were an HF anti-jam, anti-multipath communication system capable of transmitting information at rates up to 20,000 words per minute and an HF low-detectability communication system for surreptitious transmission of low-data-rate information.

Earlier, at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, I carried out military-oriented theoretical investigations in the fields of electromagnetic propagation, operations research, and statistical communication theory as well as the analysis and evaluation of missile detection, guidance, and control systems.

Before transferring my attention to electronic systems and techniques, I performed research in nuclear physics at the Argonne National Laboratory utilizing a Van de Graaff generator with primary emphasis on the magnetic analysis of charged particle groups from nuclear reactions. I also designed and supervised the construction of experimental apparatus and instrumentation utilized in this research.

© 2002 Robert Malm