Hans Auer übersiedelte vor 10 Jahren mit seiner Familie aus Colorado, USA nach Dornbirn. Beruflich konnte er schnell Fuß fassen und arbeitet als Sr. Engineer, ASIC Development bei Tridonic. Neben seiner spannenden Tätigkeit schätzt der Familienmensch in Vorarlberg vor allem die Wander- und Mountainbike-Trails – und das österreichische Sozialsystem:

I’m originally from the USA, but I’ve lived and worked in Vorarlberg for the past 10 years. My wife is from Dornbirn, and wanted to move back here once we had started a family. As a hiking and biking enthusiast, I enjoy the close proximity to mountains, and having a big lake nearby is an added bonus. Even though my take-home salary here is much lower than it was back home, I’ve come to appreciate many aspects of the Austrian social system and the equal opportunity it provides.

Work is a 5 minute bike ride away, which I value greatly. As a member of R&D at Tridonic, I have the opportunity to work with a diverse organization of skilled developers. I’m a senior engineer in a small group whose primary focus is mixed-signal ASIC development. It’s both interesting & challenging because it requires knowledge of analog & digital systems, signal processing, simulation and hardware development. The people in our group typically have a technical degree from a FH or University.

I have a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado. After graduating, I spent 10 years as a developer for Seagate Technology where I gained substantial FPGA-design experience. This was later useful when I joined Tridonic because most ASIC-prototyping hardware is FPGA-based, requiring knowledge of HDL and the associated tooling for digital design and verification. The hardest thing, initially, was learning the language.

Tridonic gave me the opportunity to develop on the analog side, particularly in the area of power electronics, introducing me to additional tools for analog development. This makes it possible for us to model complete ASIC designs in simulation and hardware, reducing design turns and increasing the probability of first-time-right silicon. And because we’re an international company, we document everything in English and it’s often spoken in meetings, which is an added bonus for me.