Dr. Richards received his BSEE from the University of Florida in 1981 with Highest Honors, his MSEE from Stanford University under Bell Labs sponsorship in 1982 and his Ph.D. from Duke University in 1999. His emphasis of study was in semiconductor device physics.

He returned to Bell Labs where he worked as an analog designer in a CMOS analog design group at the Electron Device Lab in Reading, Pa. until the end of October 1984. From November 1985 through May 1987, he worked as an analog CMOS designer at the GE Microelectronics Center in Research Triangle Park, NC. From May 1987 through 1989, he worked in the Advanced Device Development group as a device modeling, simulation and characterization engineer.

From January 1990 until August 1994 he was with the Microelectronics Center of North Carolina (MCNC) where he performed device modeling, simulation and analog design activities. In August 1994, he joined Thunderbird Technologies, Inc. as a Senior Staff Engineer where he performs device design, modeling, simulation and characterization work.

Concurrent with his work at Thunderbird Technologies, Inc., he became re-instated at Duke to finish his PhD work. He has authored or co-authored 9 papers or conference talks in the areas of device modeling or characterization, and has reviewed for several IEEE professional journals and conferences as well as served on the technical committee for the ASIC conference, Rochester, NY. He has authored several patent disclosures and currently holds two patents. He is a member of Phi Kappa Phi, the Golden Key National Honor Society and the IEEE. Dr. Richards currently holds the postion of Vice President of Engineering at Thunderbird Technologies, Inc.