Denver Hosts Technical Seminars on Cutting-Edge CMOS Technology and High-Speed Test
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CHAPTERS 72 IEEE SSCS NEWSLETTER Winter 2007 I n the past year, the Denver SSCS Chapter hosted eight monthly seminars, including four by SSCS Distinguished Lectur- ers. These talks spanned a variety of exciting developments in IC design, cutting-edge CMOS tech- nology, and high-speed test. In the first seminar of 2006, Dr. Victor Chan of IBM gave a very informative overview of state-of- the-art strain and substrate engi- neering techniques to enhance channel mobility in bulk and SOI CMOS. In February, Dr. Osvaldo Buccafusca of Avago Technolo- gies, who is also the Chair of the IEEE Centennial Subsection that covers northern Colorado and southern Wyoming, described the challenges and implementation of a very high-speed optical sampling oscilloscope for characterization of optical serial links. Adam Healey of Agere Systems, Chair of the IEEE 802.3ap Standards Commit- tee, built on this theme with a dis- cussion of 10 Gigabit Ethernet over backplane interconnects. This topic is of significant interest to the many Fort Collins IC designers dealing with high-speed electrical data links. Stefan Rusu presented the next talk on Intel’s Dual-Core Xeon® Processor. Abstracts and slides for all lectures are available at the Chapter’s website. Dr. Marcel Pelgrom of Philips Research visited Fort Collins in May to deliver our first Distin- guished Lecture of the year. A pio- neering expert on transistor vari- ability, he delivered an insightful talk on the analog challenges asso- ciated with nanometer CMOS. Given its relevant nature, Dr. Pel- grom's seminar drew a chapter record attendance of 120! The next DL seminar was given by Dr. Kiyoo Itoh of Hitachi Cen- tral Research Laboratory, who spoke about ultra-low voltage nano-scale embedded RAMs. Dr. Itoh emphasized the importance of fully-depleted SOI technology as an enabling solution to overcome device mismatch and allow for ultra-low voltage operation. Prof. Boris Murmann was the next speaker, coming from Stanford University to discuss the impor- tance of digital techniques to com- pensate for analog limitations, such as nonlinearity and variabili- ty, in sub-100nm CMOS. In August, Prof. Behzad Razavi visited from the University of Cali- fornia at Los Angeles. His much anticipated seminar covered some exciting new developments on the 60GHz RF CMOS transceiver front and discussed design and modeling challenges in that domain. Not sur- prisingly, Prof. Razavi’s renowned authorship drew quite a trail for autographs. Thanks to members-at- large Herman Pang and Michael Gildorf of Avago Technologies for making possible our first ever semi- nar recorded on DVD. The DVD will be available to chapters, upon request. Following a social event in November, the year ended with a ninth lecture by Sam Naffziger of Advanced Micro Devices, who spoke on high-performance proces- sors in a power-limited world. Fort Denver Hosts Technical Seminars on Cutting-Edge CMOS Technology and High-Speed Test Alvin Loke, Denver Chapter Chair, [email protected], Bob Barnes, Denver Chapter Vice Chair & Treasurer, [email protected], Tin Tin Wee, Denver Chapter Secretary & Webmaster, [email protected] Alvin Loke, Denver Chapter Chair, presented an award of appreciation to Dr. Pelgrom. The Distinguished Lecturer seminar by Dr. Marcel Pelgrom attracted an audi- ence of 120 at Fort Collins, CO on 11 May 2006. The Society distributed this DVD as a technical treat to attendees at the Society’s Far East Chapters Luncheon and Meeting in November.
Transcript of Denver Hosts Technical Seminars on Cutting-Edge CMOS Technology and High-Speed Test
CHAPTERS
72 IEEE SSCS NEWSLETTER Winter 2007
In the past year, the Denver
SSCS Chapter hosted eight
monthly seminars, including
four by SSCS Distinguished Lectur-
ers. These talks spanned a variety
of exciting developments in IC
design, cutting-edge CMOS tech-
nology, and high-speed test.
In the first seminar of 2006, Dr.
Victor Chan of IBM gave a very
informative overview of state-of-
the-art strain and substrate engi-
neering techniques to enhance
channel mobility in bulk and SOI
CMOS. In February, Dr. Osvaldo
Buccafusca of Avago Technolo-
gies, who is also the Chair of the
IEEE Centennial Subsection that
covers northern Colorado and
southern Wyoming, described the
challenges and implementation of
a very high-speed optical sampling
oscilloscope for characterization of
optical serial links. Adam Healey
of Agere Systems, Chair of the
IEEE 802.3ap Standards Commit-
tee, built on this theme with a dis-
cussion of 10 Gigabit Ethernet over
backplane interconnects. This
topic is of significant interest to the
many Fort Collins IC designers
dealing with high-speed electrical
data links. Stefan Rusu presented
the next talk on Intel’s Dual-Core
Xeon® Processor. Abstracts and
slides for all lectures are available
at the Chapter’s website.
Dr. Marcel Pelgrom of Philips
Research visited Fort Collins in
May to deliver our first Distin-
guished Lecture of the year. A pio-
neering expert on transistor vari-
ability, he delivered an insightful
talk on the analog challenges asso-
ciated with nanometer CMOS.
Given its relevant nature, Dr. Pel-
grom's seminar drew a chapter
record attendance of 120!
The next DL seminar was given
by Dr. Kiyoo Itoh of Hitachi Cen-
tral Research Laboratory, who
spoke about ultra-low voltage
nano-scale embedded RAMs. Dr.
Itoh emphasized the importance of
fully-depleted SOI technology as
an enabling solution to overcome
device mismatch and allow for
ultra-low voltage operation. Prof.
Boris Murmann was the next
speaker, coming from Stanford
University to discuss the impor-
tance of digital techniques to com-
pensate for analog limitations,
such as nonlinearity and variabili-
ty, in sub-100nm CMOS.
In August, Prof. Behzad Razavi
visited from the University of Cali-
fornia at Los Angeles. His much
anticipated seminar covered some
exciting new developments on the
60GHz RF CMOS transceiver front
and discussed design and modeling
challenges in that domain. Not sur-
prisingly, Prof. Razavi’s renowned
authorship drew quite a trail for
autographs. Thanks to members-at-
large Herman Pang and Michael
Gildorf of Avago Technologies for
making possible our first ever semi-
nar recorded on DVD. The DVD
will be available to chapters, upon
request.
Following a social event in
November, the year ended with a
ninth lecture by Sam Naffziger of
Advanced Micro Devices, who
spoke on high-performance proces-
sors in a power-limited world. Fort
Denver Hosts Technical Seminars on Cutting-EdgeCMOS Technology and High-Speed TestAlvin Loke, Denver Chapter Chair, [email protected], Bob Barnes, Denver Chapter Vice Chair &Treasurer, [email protected], Tin Tin Wee, Denver Chapter Secretary & Webmaster,[email protected]
Alvin Loke, Denver Chapter Chair,presented an award of appreciationto Dr. Pelgrom.
The Distinguished Lecturer seminar by Dr. Marcel Pelgrom attracted an audi-ence of 120 at Fort Collins, CO on 11 May 2006.
The Society distributed this DVD as atechnical treat to attendees at theSociety’s Far East Chapters Luncheonand Meeting in November.
Winter 2007 IEEE SSCS NEWSLETTER 73
CHAPTERS
Collins has quickly become a
hotbed of leading-edge micro-
processor activity with AMD recent-
ly opening its brand new Mile High
Design Center to match Intel’s
established presence in Itanium
development.
We regret to announce that Past
Chair Dr. Don McGrath decided to
step aside from chapter activities,
having been overwhelmed by his
responsibilities at LSI Logic. We
wish to extend our best wishes to
him and heartfelt thanks for his
instrumental leadership and com-
mitment to grow this young chap-
ter for several years soon after its
inception in late 2002. We are also
grateful to our past speakers, espe-
cially those who traveled from dis-
tant places and undoubtedly busy
schedules to support our humble
service to the northern Colorado
design community. Finally, we
welcome Bruce Doyle who recent-
ly joined the existing officer team.
Please visit ewh.ieee.org/r5/den-
ver/sscs/ for more information,
including past presentation slides,
about our chapter events.
Herman Pang (far left) and Mikail Gilsdor (second from right, second row) video taped Dr. Razavi’s talk on 1 August, 2006.Dr. Razavi is eighth from right, front row. A. Loke and Tin Tin Wee, Chapter Secretary and Webmaster, are to his right.
