This week's story features Cees Links, the General Manager of Qorvo's Wireless Connectivity Business Unit, and someone who has been a devoted reader of ECN Magazine for years.
I recently recalled an amusing incident involving my son. One day, one of his friends came over to visit. As soon as he walked in, he asked, "What's your Wi-Fi password?" I responded with a laugh, "Don't you see the Wi-Fi router? Isn't that obvious?" It struck me then how deeply ingrained Wi-Fi and connectivity have become in our daily lives. This realization always reminds me why I fell in love with engineering design in the first place—I feel incredibly fortunate to be part of this field. Engineers have the unique ability to bring new creations into existence, something that never ceases to excite me and motivates me to keep pushing forward.
My journey into engineering began early on. In 1975, I stumbled upon an electrical engineering magazine—back then, there was no internet, so everything was print-based. There was a design article in the magazine listing 30 components and a schematic. Inspired, I hopped on my bike and headed to the local Radio Shack to gather those parts: resistors, capacitors, coils, crystals, and more. Once I returned home, I spread out the components on the table and grabbed my soldering iron. With great care, I assembled them following the diagram. Plugging in the earphones and inserting the battery, I turned it on—and it worked! Clear music flowed through the headphones, leaving me awestruck. I had created a functional FM radio from scratch, a moment that felt nothing short of magical. That experience solidified my passion for engineering—it was transformative, turning 30 ordinary components into something extraordinary.
Fast forward to 2004, Wi-Fi was evolving rapidly, yet challenges remained for low-power applications in homes. This prompted me to revisit similar questions I had pondered before: how could we optimize Wi-Fi for lower power consumption while leveraging existing architectures? Collaborating with old colleagues, we realized that ZigBee not only excelled in power efficiency but also shared similarities with Wi-Fi. This insight led us to pioneer one of the industry’s most energy-efficient ZigBee solutions.
Recently, I was honored with the Golden Mousetrap Lifetime Achievement Award by Design News for my contributions to Wi-Fi technology. Receiving this award reminded me of the countless engineers who have dedicated themselves to innovation. Engineering is a relentless pursuit of excellence. We strive to refine our ideas, endlessly debugging software until the product meets our ideals. Perfectionism drives us to continuously improve, even when others might settle for less.
As engineers, we possess boundless creativity and ingenuity. Through technology, we can make the world a better place—a connected world is indeed a better world.
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