2003 Fellow

Presented to: Mr. Patrick Fenton

Citation: For his sustained contributions in the field of GPS, including advanced receiver architecture and designs, multipath, reduction, digital signal processing techniques and technical publications.

Mr. Patrick Fenton received his geomatics engineering degree from the University of Calgary in 1981. He was first employed by the survey division of Shell Canada where he developed software for airborne laser scanning equipment, inertial navigation systems and GPS. In 1982, after Shell's survey division became Nortech Inc., Mr. Fenton became head of the software team that developed Nortech's first GPS receiver, the Norstar 1000.

In 1989, NovAtel Inc. acquired the GPS receiver subsidiary of Nortech Survey to begin the development of an entirely new line of advanced GPS products. As the chief engineer of NovAtel's GPS division, Mr. Fenton developed and patented the Narrow Correlator technology with other colleagues in 1991—a major milestone in the performance enhancement of GPS receivers. As part of the NovAtel development team, Mr. Fenton also spearheaded the developments of more advanced multipath techniques of MEDLL and PAC. The Narrow Correlator, MEDLL and PAC technologies are now standards in the GPS industry. (MEDLL is used in all SBAS ground stations: WAAS, EGNOS, SNAS, MSASS.) Mr. Fenton has also been involved in the development and patenting of many other GPS receiver enhancement technologies.

Mr. Fenton has published papers on a regular basis and has been involved in ION activities for more than 10 years. He has served as a technical chair for ION GPS 1998 and has chaired or co-chaired many sessions at ION conferences. Mr. Fenton is the current vice president and chief technology officer at NovAtel Inc.