Fellow Emeritus, Analog Devices Corp.
Douglas Mercer has made extensive contributions to the design and development of analog-digital converters and high performance electronics. It is virtually impossible to make a cell phone call without encountering something of his design. Mercer has long been involved in the ECSE Department, sponsoring a student circuit design contest since 2007, endowing a distinguished lecturer seminar series, and providing an endowment in 2012 to establish the Douglas Mercer ’77 Laboratory for Student Exploration & Innovation, an open electronics makerspace where students can tinker with their own ideas. Now, thanks to his $2 million gift, the laboratory is expanding in scope. Mercer deeply believes in the benefit of hands-on experience in the learning process.
Douglas Mercer received the B.S.E.E degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in 1977. He has 40 years of experience in the linear IC industry, 32 in the design and development of high resolution and high speed data converter products. Since joining Analog Devices in 1977 he has contributed directly or indirectly to more than 30 commercial products with many industry firsts, including the first single supply microprocessor compatible DAC and the first 12 bit monolithic ADC to achieve greater than 1 MSPS. He was the founding technical contributor to the development of the TxDAC® family of DACs designed specifically for communications transmit applications.
He holds 13 US patents. A member of the IEEE from 1979 to 2009, he has authored or co-authored peer reviewed and invited papers at multiple IEEE conferences (ISSCC, CICC, BCTM, and Low Power Symposium) and in the IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits.
Appointed to the position of ADI Fellow in 1995. Retired from full time work in 2009, he is currently a Fellow Emeritus within Analog Devices principally contributing to the ADI University Program.