Electronic Engineering – Research that Transforms

our LivesTom Brazil PhD, FIEEE, MRIA

Professor of Electronic Engineering

University College Dublin

In the past 4 decades, no other discipline has more profoundly changed the

way we communicate, find information, do business,

entertain ourselves…

… why is this?

… will it continue?

… what more is to come?

EE: “Electronic Engineering”

Some distinctive characteristics..

• EE involves both (charged) matter and (electromagnetic) radiation;

• EE is highly research-intensive with a strong coupling to mathematics and physics;

• For over 40 years implementation has been driven by an exponential underpinning technology trend (‘Moore’s Law’)

Various Perspectives on EE• Level of Physical Reality:

– Electronic properties of materials/ Electromagnetic (EM) radiation (devices, transistors, electronic circuits, Integrated Circuits (ICs) etc..)

• Abstract Level:– EE is about generation, processing, storage

and transmission of signals (i.e. information in electrical form) (algorithms, coding, modulation, software …)

These Two Perspectives Evident in UG Degree Subjects…

• Solid-State Electronics; Electromagetics; Electronic Circuits– Physics; Mathematical Physics, Chemistry…

• Circuit Theory; Control Theory; Communications Theory; Computer Engineering; Linear and Nonlinear Systems; Software– Mathematics; Statistics; Computer Science …

… of course yet another perspective of EE could be based on Applications …

Fly-by-wire planes

PCs and laptops

Wireless LANSat

ellite

TV

Optoelectronics

Digital TV

Computer Networks

Memory Sticks

MP3 Players

DVDs

CAT scanners

Voice Reco

gnition Syste

msRadar

Plasma/LCD TVs

InternetMobile

Phones

GPS/Satellite Positioning

Microwave ovens Optical fibres

SMS

RFIDBarcode readers

PSII

Bluetooth

telephony

Digital CamerasW-LAN

HDTV

How to Proceed…?

• Overview of Major Trends In EE: – taking the perspective of (dual)

physical reality in EE: PARTICLE (Charge) & WAVE (Electromagnetic)

• EE at UCD:– current status, future opportunities

Wave-Particle Duality• The everyday physical world seems to us to be

composed of matter (dust, stars…) and radiation (heat, light…)

• The insights of Einstein (1905) and de Broglie (1924) contributed to the view that this may be just our perception: at a deep level they could the same

• Eventually this concept of ‘wave particle duality’ became a fundamental aspect of the development of the modern theory of quantum mechanics

kp

E

particle wave

Duality in EE

• This wave-particle duality is also fundamental to EE:– The engineering of charged matter– The engineering of the

electromagnetic (EM) spectrum• EE is unique among the

Engineering disciplines in placing such strong emphasis on both matter and the EM spectrum!

Theme (1): The Engineering of Charged

ParticlesElectronic Devices &

Circuits

Electronic Devices & Circuits

• Era of Valve (Tube) Electronics ~1900s-1950s– First electronic device: audion tube (Lee de

Forest, 1905)

• Semiconductor Era ~1950s to 2020 (?)– Effectively began with invention of transistor

in 1947 by Bardeen, Brittain and Shockley

• Post-Semiconductor Era?– Devices based on new materials and/or more

directly exploiting quantum mechanics ….

Moore’s Law

In 1965, Gordon Moore, the founder of Intel, postulated what was to come to be known as ‘Moore’s Law’:

“the power of the silicon chip

will double every 18-24 months,

with a proportionate decrease in

cost “

222 ~ 4,000,000 over 40 years

Microprocessors

• In 30 years the number of transistors on a microprocessor chip has increased by a factor of over 77,000, from 2,300 transistors on the 4004 in 1971 to 178 million transistors on an Intel Pentium® 4.

• Product speed has increased in a similar fashion, with the earliest 4004 processors running at 100kHz vs. the current Intel Pentium® 4 Processor at 3.8 GHz, a factor of 38,000.

ICs: Huge Increase in Complexity at lower cost…

Smaller means faster!

• Current technology ‘node’ is 65nm inCMOS (‘nanoelectronics’)

• Severe challenges being overcome: material dispersion, modelling, signal integrity, thermal management…

• Reconfigurable computing concepts are increasingly dominant

• Emphasis on System-on-Chip (Soc) or System-in-Package (SiP) combining various technologies in a single platform

Current IC Technology

Detailed Cross-Section near surface of advanced CMOS IC

MOStransistor

6 separate layersof metal interconnect, withconnecting ‘vias’

~ 2km of interconnecton one 10mmx10mm IC!

What does the future hold?

• The end of CMOS will effectively be the end of the evolution of charge-based electronics;

• Beyond that new device concepts are likely to emerge more directly exploiting quantum mechanics;

“The scaling of CMOS device and process technology, as it is known today, likely will end by the 16nm node (7nm physical

channel length) by 2019.” Source: ITRC Roadmap 2004

Molecular Quantum-Effect Device

Theme (2): The Engineering of

Electromagnetic WavesWireless, Microwave…

Wireless, Microwave…

• Linked to the development of electronic devices and components, the history of EE has involved exploiting the EM spectrum at steadily higher frequencies

• Each advance has been critically dependent on the availability of sources, amplifiers and detectors

Wireless, Microwaves…• Maxwell 1865 Theory of EM Waves• Hertz 1885 Experimental demonstration of

radio• Marconi

– 1895 (Bologna) First communication by microwaves

– 1899 (Dun Laoghaire) Worlds first outside sports broadcast

– 1933 (Vatican City) First voice link by microwaves

• WWII Huge advances in radar technology• Post-war: network TV, satellites, space ..• 1990’s: Wireless revolution!

Vision of Future Wireless Systems

Technical Trends• Data rates and system center frequencies

will increase.• The most advanced transmission techniques

in space-time-frequency domain must be used to increase spectral efficiency.

• Radio systems will be adaptive.• Energy-constrained wireless nodes• Networks are partially based on Ad-Hoc

techniques.• Flexible radio transceiver techniques are

needed.

79GHz Anti-collision Radars

sensor height47 cm

The Final Frontier? TeraHertz

A vast ~unexploited part of the

EM spectrum

historical trend in EE optoelectronics

Problem to Date:

lack of sources-being

addressed

Applications:Numerous!!

NB: Terahertz is non-ionising!

(RadioAstronomy)

A Radio Telescope for Ireland (ARTI)

• Between 1845 and 1918, the largest (optical) telescope in the world was located in Birr, Co. Offaly;

• In 2002 Lord Rosse donated a site at Birr for a proposed new radio telescope, linking Ireland to a European network of such telescopes

• Just €10M needed now!

Research in Electronic Engineering

• Intense levels of research and innovation are characteristic of EE

• The research is highly rigorous and scientific (e.g. IEEE Transactions…): often closely linked to and even driving comparable research in mathematics, physics etc

• Research may often be very fundamental, but a breakthrough can be immediately applied in industry or to society

Research in EE in UCD

• Very strong, long-established ethos of top-level international research in Electronic Engineering in UCD

• Built up by Sean Scanlan (Professor of Electronic Engineering, UCD 1973-2002)

• Excellent individual achievements: challenge now is to expand on a large scale at institutional level

EE Research Performance

• October 2004: 15 full-time academic staff;

• 48 PhD students, 12 research Masters (3.x PhDs per academic)

• €2.4M cash income in previous 12 months

• Xx publications in leading peer-reviewed international journals and conference proceedings

Research Themes: UCD EE

• Broad Theme of Physical Layer Communications

• Specific world-class teams in signal processing, nonlinear circuits & systems, microwave/RF and optoelectronics

• Generic competence in electronic simulation, modelling and design

• Strong interdisciplinary focus around rapidly growing area of biomedical engineering

Design in Electronic Engineering

• Traditional Approach– Use a mixture of intuition, past

experience, simple analysis, prototyping, trial & error…

• Computer Aided Design (CAD)– Create a mathematical model of

possible realisation and relate parameters of model to measurable quantities. Then analyse, tune, optimise… EE CAD:

Circuit Theory

CAD of Microwave Systems

Non-linearTransistorModels

ttyfdt

tyd,

StandardLumped/

DistributedCircuit

Elements

S-parameter blocks

A special feature of microwave analysis

e.g. GaAs MMIC for 77GHz automotive radar (ca. 1mm2)

My Research: Microwave CAD

• Non-linear equivalent circuit and physics-based models of microwave transistors;

• Algorithms for combining frequency-domain (S-parameter) blocks within transient time-domain analysis;

• Behavioural level models for describing complete high frequency systems – SFI Investigator Award (€1.3M)– EU Network of Excellence (TARGET)– UCD Patent, EI Support, industry etc..

Non-linear Modelling of Microwave FET Devices

QGSQGD

Gate

VG

Source Drain

VS VDRS RD

RG

iDS

N-epi

CGS

CGD

IAC

IDS GDS

CX

DGSRGSI

RGDI

DGD

G D

S

(Intrinsic part only)

nNNqE

tW

u

nTvEvqn

Wvt

W

tp

nTEqn

vppvtp

tn

vntn

ad

c

c

c

Equivalent circuit model

Hydrodynamic equations:(n = electron conc.; p = momentum; W=

energy density; u = heat flux)

Time-Domain/Frequency-Domain Nonlinear

SimulationFET

model

FETmodel

FETmodel

General, linear time-invariantnetwork[S(f)]

source

load

behavioual or system-level model

Example of General Network: S21(f)

-6

-4

-2

0

2

4

0 0.5 1 1.5 2

I.R

. W

eig

ht

Time

-0.12-0.08-0.04

00.040.080.12

0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6

Vo

ltag

e (

V)

Time (nsec)

-60-50-40-30-20-10

0

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

Mag

nit

ud

e (

dB

)

Frequency (GHz)

-200

-100

0

100

200

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

Ph

ase (

deg

s.)

Frequency (GHz)

1

0

( ) ( ) ( )

(0) ( ) (1) ( 1)

m

i

y n w i x n i

w x n w x n

1

0

20 1 2

( ) [ ( )]

( ) [ ( )]

mi

ii

y n a x n

a a x n a x n

1 1 1

1 20 0 0

1 1 1

30 0 0

( ) ( ) ( ) ( , ) ( ) ( )

( , , ) ( ) ( ) ( )

m m m

i i j

m m m

i j k

y n h i x n i h i j x n i x n j

h i j k x n i x n j x n k

Volterra Series(Complex Envelope Discrete Time

Formulation)

Nonlinear systemwith memory

2nd-order Volterra kernel

3rd-order Volterra kernel

Linear system

with memory

Nonlinear system

without memory

Bevavioural Modelling: Discrete Time Volterra Series

bBaseban

dInput

PredistortionCalculation

ComplexMultiplier

MainAmplifier

RFOutpu

t

Mod.

Dem.

LUT

Without Predistortion

With Predistortion

Application of VolterraModel: reducing non- linear distortion produced bywireless amplifier

RFOutput:

VolterraModel used to

Generate requiredpre-distortion

Basic Research in EE

• Research is fundamental to EE• The best of that research poses some of

the most fundamental mathematical and physical challenges

• EE research draws on a broad range of skills and disciplines (including circuit theory, circuits and systems…)

• A breakthrough is immediately applicable!

EE Research in Ireland

• Science Foundation Ireland’s prioritisation of ICT is welcome

• The Irish electronics industry does not have a secure future without a strong base of top-level national research

• BUT: Ireland’s academic research infrastructure in EE is relatively weak

• Critical investments are now needed for our future success

Conclusions• The story of Electronic Engineering in the last 50 years

is absolutely astonishing: it has truly transformed our lives

• Yet there is vast amount more to come – the historical pace of change will continue for at least two more decades

• Ireland faces fundamental structural challenges in responding to this. We are at a critical stage and must make the right decisions for future economic success

• Electronic Engineering is one of UCD’s true ‘star’ centres of research: it is ready and willing to continue to play its part in building a successful future for the university and the country