Architectures and Circuits for Efficient Highly Integrated Communication Systems and Microsystems

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In the current information age, microsystems and communication systems have been seamlessly interwoven into our everyday lives. Integrated circuits (ICs) are almost ubiquitously used to implement these systems (e.g., cell phones and smart phones, data centers, biomedical devices, ...). Analog, mixed-signal, and radio-frequency (RF) building blocks are often the performance bottleneck of such systems. These blocks usually dictate the accuracy, speed and/or power consumption of the system. In fact, although the advances in digital signal processing and digital circuits have been impressive and shifted the attention from analog to digital signal processing, interfacing "real world" analog signals to the "digital world" is a necessity for the operation of such systems. The objective of this research is to develop system and circuit techniques that are suited for efficient implementation of wireless/wireline communication systems as well as biomedical microsystems. The emphasis is on systems implemented in advanced CMOS technologies and operate in the frequency ranges from a few (tens of) kHz (for sensor interfaces for biomedical and medical imaging applications) up to a few tens of GHz (for wireless and wireline applications). The reason for emphasis on CMOS technologies is because they have emerged as the de facto standard process for implementation of integrated solutions for these applications. In addition to dense integration, CMOS technologies provide the possibility of integrating analog and digital circuitry on the same chip. However, the advances in CMOS technologies, although result in faster transistors, constrain the performance measures of analog, mixed-signal, and RF circuits such as noise, accuracy, and power consumption. Thus, the net benefit of implementation of systems in advanced CMOS technologies is a strong function of the system architecture and circuit design techniques used. Therefore, the goal of this research is to continue the development of new CMOS-friendly integrated circuits and systems design techniques with a particular focus on wireless and wireline communication systems, and medical imaging applications.