Integrated Circuits and VLSI

The study yields new insights into the survival of a native snail important to Tahitian culture and ecology and to biologists studying evolution, while proving the viability of similar studies of very small animals including insects

The digital beamforming chip offers significant advantages over current analog beamforming solutions.

In a project funded by National Geographic, ECE researchers are teaming up with the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology to advance our understanding of monarch butterfly migration with the most ambitious iteration of the Michigan Micro Mote yet.

With new funding in the company, the hardtech startup is bringing revolutionary technologies to reshape mmWave wireless.

PhD student Trevor Odelberg’s low power circuits help us make sense of our environment while reducing battery waste.

PhD student Matthew Belz will work to develop jamming-resistant radar systems for autonomous vehicles.

Part of the team that brought us the world’s smallest computer in 2015 brings the future of computing technology into the present.

Prof. David Wentzloff’s paper examining the trends and techniques to achieve ultra-low power receivers was honored by the IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference

Prof. Al-Thaddeus Avestruz and PhD student Xin Zan were honored at the IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition for their work improving the efficiency and reliability of wireless power transfer.

Blaauw’s innovations in low-power computing led to development of the Michigan Micro Mote, the world’s smallest computer.

PhD student Hsiang-Wen Chen, who works to improve integrated circuits, was awarded the Chia-Lun Lo Fellowship.

Kim takes an interdisciplinary approach to tackle challenges in heterogeneous classes of energy-efficient and versatile communication systems.

Pioneering computer technology that is spurring innovation and disruption across industries has earned David Blaauw and Dennis Sylvester, professors of electrical engineering and computer science, this year’s Distinguished University Innovator Award.

Circuit elements that store information in their electrical resistances enable a brain-like form of computing, storing and processing information in the same place.

Terahertz and sub-terahertz imaging can provide superior results in some biomedical imaging, spectroscopy, and water saturation detection.

The Michigan Micro Mote gets a new gallium arsenide solar cell for added power and adaptability.

Researchers built the first visual SLAM processor on a single chip that provides highly accurate, low-power, and real-time results.

Movellus is a U-M startup founded by alumni Dr. Mo Faisal (now CEO) and Dr. Jeff Fredenburg (now VP of Engineering).

Researchers built the first millimeter-scale transmitter and antenna that can talk Bluetooth Low Energy with ease.

Zhang is recognized with the Chia-Lun Lo Fellowship for his work designing hardware solutions that could help support computer vision and machine learning.

U-M team will serve as model for nimble and innovative system-on-chip design.

The speedy and efficient system-on-chip could unify wireless communication.

Six-month hardware design process will be turned into 24-hour automated task.

Kim’s research is expected to impact the future design and wireless operation of the next generation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices

The latest from IBM and now the University of Michigan is redefining what counts as a computer at the microscale.

Millimeter-sized computers log the temperature and pressure from deep within oil wells.

Fred Buhler founded Aweslome to provide custom-build chips for a broad range of applications, including machine learning, neural networks, security, and circuits testing.

This award recognizes the paper published 15 years ago (2002) that has had the biggest impact on the field

Professors Blaauw and Sylvester showcase capabilities of tiny computing

Movellus Circuits won $25,000 in the University Research Highlight and People’s Choice categories

This platform has enabled a variety of sensors that can fit inside the human body, made possible by several breakthroughs in ultra-low power computing.

With a radio specifically designed to communicate through tissue, researchers from the Electrical and Computer Engineering are adding another level to a computer platform small enough to fit inside a medical grade syringe.

Avish conducts research on ultra-low power and battery-less integrated circuits.

IoT applications are the next wave of computing and the next driving force of the semiconductor industry. The startup PsiKick [now Everactive] is helping shape this future.

Dr. Gauthier is co-founder and CTO of the semiconductor interface intellectual property (IP) company, OmniPhy.

Ambiq Micro, Crossbar, Inc., and PsiKick, are leading the way in ultra-low power chip design, pioneering computer memory, and ultra-low power wireless sensor platforms.

This award is presented annually to a faculty member in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in acknowledgement of exceptional achievements in the education of our students.

Thomas and his group are working to improve upon artificial neural network design through a process called sparse coding.

Her research interests include analog, digital, and mixed-signal designs.

Flynn has achieved important breakthroughs in the performance and energy efficiency of analog-digital interfaces.

All of the research being presented focuses on getting the absolute best performance from the tiniest circuits, sensors, and electronic devices.

Conway will be named a fellow at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.

Instead of a battery, the chip Nathan is engineering uses two solar cells that look like they belong on a calculator.

The chips’ extreme energy efficiency enables them to be powered without a battery from harvested energy sources like vibration, thermal gradients, and more.

Movellus Circuits’ product is a patent-pending clock generator technology that is smaller, cheaper, and faster than existing solutions.

Wentzloff aims to remove the necessity of a power outlet or even a battery to power miniature sensors.

Lu plans to design and fabricate a computer chip based on so-called self-organizing, adaptive neural networks.

Zhang’s research is in the area of low-power and high-performance VLSI circuits and systems.

Congratulations to the award-winning faculty members and to the DAC for 50 years!

Giridhar’s research has an emphasis on developing circuit techniques for adaptive and reliable, high-performance computing.

Both research papers discuss ultra low-power chip design and millimeter-scale computing.

His research addresses critical needs in the area of wireless communication for the growing field of ubiquitous, energy-autonomous sensing devices.

Roberts is helping to develop low-power sensor nodes that will be worn on the body to detect certain medical conditions.

The program aims to create wearable systems that monitor a person’s environment and health in search of connections between pollutants and chronic diseases.

The project involved designing new boards and writing test software, as well as writing software to control instruments and some integrated circuit design.

The students, lead by Prof. Michael Flynn, competed for cash prizes—the two winners were chosen by Analog Devices.

“Without McCorquodale’s vision, unwavering persistence, and leadership in the face of decades of thinking to the contrary, CMOS oscillators would not exist today.”

Freyman is studying Electrical Engineering and is a member of the Michigan Integrated Circuits Laboratory.

Ambiq Micro could revolutionize ubiquitous computing, with energy-efficient microcontrollers that are 10 times more energy efficient than conventional microprocessors.

U-M faculty have developed what is believed to be the first complete millimeter-scale computing system, with applications in radio communication and wireless sensing.

The contest is highly competitive and features the best student projects from the largest and most prestigious conferences in their respective fields.

The proposed research addresses the frontiers of error-correction coding and very-large-scale integration by advancing algorithms and circuit techniques.

Until now, ubiquitous computing has been hampered by the size of necessary batteries—but Ambiq Micro is changing that, with their energy-efficient micro-controllers.

According to IEEE, “the grade of Fellow recognizes unusual distinction in the profession and shall be conferred upon a person with an extraordinary record of accomplishments.”

As designs become more complex and functional, power consumption is becoming the major design consideration and bottleneck in many portable applications.

The resulting 65nm CMOS test chip achieved an energy efficiency of 21 pJ/bit making it a promising candidate for low-power, high-performance applications.

“Imagine a microprocessor so tiny and long lasting that it can be implanted in the eye of a glaucoma sufferer to measure the progress of the disease.”

The system could enable new biomedical implants as well as home-, building- and bridge-monitoring devices.

The research funded by Google involves redesigning servers and data centers to improve their energy efficiency.

Wentzloff is working to develop a wireless 3D interconnection fabric that can provide communication channels and crossbar routing.

The paper explores logic and memory circuit topologies for a new type of transistor in development at IBM.