Brett Douglas Smith was born April 13, 1962 in Borger, TX to William and LaNell Smith.
He received his BSME degree from Texas Tech University in 1984.
In 1985, he worked at the Phillips Petroleum Co. Borger Refinery and NGL Center (Borger, TX) for two years on piping, pressure vessel, heat exchanger, and pump/compressor design, installation, and maintenance.
He went back to Texas Tech and earned a MSEE degree in 1989 with a thesis on railguns. He also passed the EIT/PE exams and was a registered Professional Mechanical Engineer.
Starting in 1989, Brett worked at Maxwell Laboratories, Inc. (San Diego, CA) as a Staff Engineer on programs including a pulsed light system for food packaging sterilization. He was Principal Engineer on a 2.4 MJ capacitor bank for a Royal Ordnance (UK) Electro-Magnetic (EM) gun, High Power Microwave (HPM) systems, and other EM gun projects.
From 1995 to 1997, he joined Hipotronics, Inc. (Brewster, NY) as Director of the Product Integration Team where he led the integration of 3 new product lines into the Hipotronics manufacturing system. He was also Manager of Engineering Services where he supervised 10 employees and was responsible for the engineering document control, ISO engineering procedures, and the engineering portion of the MRP system.
He was recruited by Cymer, Inc. (San Diego, CA) in 1997 and worked as a Senior Design Engineer for 3 years, on the design, testing, and production of the 2 kHz 6000 series laser Commutator, the front end to the Solid State Pulsed Power Module (SSPPM). The SSPPM converted utility power to a repetitive, high voltage pulse driving the laser chamber to generate DUV light for manufacturing state-of-the-art ICs in semiconductor fabs worldwide.
He continued to support Cymer after he formed his own company, B.D. Engineering, Inc. Brett was the Chief Engineer and Designer for the 7000 series Commutator SSPMM module, the first 4 kHz design to power ArF laser chambers and increase the optical power. In 2001, he was hired by Tui Laser AG Milas (Munich, Germany) to develop a 2 kHz, SSPPM to power their laser for semiconductor mask inspection, delivering a successful prototype within 6 months.
His work on leading-edge development efforts at Cymer continued through 2005, including thermal management of high-power magnetic switches; integration and testing of new magnetic core materials; design and engineering of 4 kHz Resonant Chargers; design and prototyping of a 20 J/pulse, 5 kHz SSPPM to drive a Dense Plasma Focus (DPF) for EUV lithography; and designing portions of the 6 kHz XLX and XLA laser SSPPMs. During 9 years supporting Cymer, Brett was an inventor on 6 U.S. and 2 international granted patents.
In 2006, he supported L3 Communications to develop a new Navy EM gun barrel. He consulted with various projects including characterization of a wind powered generator for home use. Brett contracted with L3 again in 2009, working on a Navy water-cooled, 65 kA air-core inductor. He assisted Ness Engineering, Inc. for several years starting in 2009 with a custom 1 kV Pulse Power Supply for a USAF application; a pulsed power module for testing magnetic materials; and design upgrade for a French laser company (Excico).
He continued solving technical problems for a variety of companies until he passed away unexpectedly on Sunday, October 24, 2014.
He was an extremely hard worker in all he did and his contributions are severely missed by those who worked with him. He enjoyed basketball, fishing, hunting, and astronomy.
He was preceded in death by his father, William Smith. Survivors include his mother, LaNell Smith; brother, Mark Smith (and wife Erma); sister, Lynne Wyatt (and husband Joe); nieces, Anna and Rebecca Wyatt; nephews, Derek Wyatt (and wife Aimee), Caleb Wyatt, and Luke Wyatt; and grand nieces, Juliette and Aria Wyatt.