Curtis was the designer of many original analogue ICs, used in a number of notable electronic music instruments.
Upon graduation, he qualified for a post as junior engineer by showing circuit boards of his designs.
He entered a competition to design a semi-custom chip and won, resulting in a job at Interdesign, where he worked for four years.
In 1988, Curtis established the company OnChip Systems in order to offer semi-custom chips for a broad range of applications and industries.
[2] In 2006 Curtis was inducted into the San Jose Rocks Hall of Fame for technical contributions to music.