Phil O'Donovan

Phil O'Donovan is a British engineer. He was a co-founder of Cambridge Silicon Radio Ltd, a FTSE 250 a pioneer in the Bluetooth chip industry. In 2005, he was the recipient of the RAEng MacRobert Award for creating and being first to market with the world's first single chip Bluetooth device.[3][4][5]

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Phil O’Donovan
Born1950 (age 72–73)
Mile End Road, London
NationalityBritish
EducationUniversity of Warwick (BSc)
University of Birmingham (MSc)
University of Essex (PhD)[1]
Engineering career
DisciplineBluetooth
Employer(s)CSR plc
Significant designBlueCore01TM
AwardsRAEng MacRobert Award[2]

Education

O'Donovan studied Maths, Physics and Engineering at the University of Warwick, followed by an MSc in Information and Communications Systems at Birmingham University and a PhD at Essex University in "Character Recognition Using Optical Fibres and Hardwired Logic."[6]

Career

In 1991, O'Donovan joined Cambridge Consultants Ltd (CCL) and in October 1998, O’Donovan and 8 other colleagues spun Cambridge Silicon Radio out of CCL having raised a first VC round of £6million.[7][8][9]

As founding managing director of CSR, O'Donovan and his 8 co-founders launched BlueCore01TM in 2001, which operated at 2.4 GHz in the license-exempt radio frequency band and included a radio, baseband logic, microcontroller and software on a single silicon chip fabricated in commodity CMOS technology.[10] Cambridge Silicon Radio grew as a fabless semiconductor company and supplied chips to hundreds of global high-volume consumer product manufacturers of dongles, modules, PCs, printers, phones, headsets and automobiles.[11] By the end of 2005, the company had shipped more than a billion chips.[12][13] Cambridge Silicon Radio joined the London Stock Exchange in April 2004 as CSR plc and became a FTSE 250 company in June of the same year.[14][15] CSR received a Queen’s Award for Enterprise (International Trade) in April 2004 as a result.[16] CSR was acquired by US company Qualcomm Inc in September 2015 for $2.5billion.[17][18]

References
  1. "Honorary graduates over the years". University of Essex. 2019.
  2. Holland, Colin (June 3, 2005). "CSR wins MacRobert award". Embedded.
  3. "Wireless wizards scoop UK's biggest innovation prize". Royal Academy of Engineering. June 3, 2005.
  4. "iPod and Bluetooth lead to prizes". BBC. June 3, 2005.
  5. "CSR Starts Volume Production Of Single-Chip Bluetooth Devices". Electronics Weekly. November 16, 2000.
  6. "50 Years of Warwick Enterprise: Phil O'Donovan advises would-be entrepreneurs". University of Warwick. April 6, 2015.
  7. Kirk, Kate; Cotton, Charles (May 9, 2012). The Cambridge Phenomenon: 50 Years of Innovation and Enterprise: 50 Years of Innovation & Enterprise. ISBN 190650752X.
  8. Rosenberg, David. "Cloning Silicon Valley: the next generation high tech hotspots". Reuters.
  9. Connell, David. "Secrets of the World's Larger Seed Capital Fund" (PDF). University of Cambridge.
  10. "CSR's Bluetooth chip wins industry qualification". Electronics Weekly. November 11, 2000.
  11. "Now's the time to digest talk of a new digital age". Marketing Week. March 5, 2000.
  12. "Sony backs Cambridge Silicon Radio funding". Irish Independent. January 5, 2001.
  13. Bowers, Simon. "CSR takes the lead in unplugged future". The Guardian.
  14. Walko, John (November 3, 2003). "Cambridge Silicon Radio joins IPO move, says report". EE Times.
  15. "Spin-Out Doctors". The Guardian.
  16. Holland, Colin (December 17, 2004). "CSR wins techMARK Achievement of the Year Award". Embedded.
  17. "Qualcomm Acquires CSR To Accelerate Its Growth In IoT". Forbes. October 21, 2014.
  18. Higginbottom, Stacey. "Here's what's next for Qualcomm as it completes its $2.4 billion CSR buy". Fortune (magazine).
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