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Inspiring Analog System Design and Innovation at Entry-level

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The (electronic) world is going Digital,

Why Analog Today?

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World as everyone knows is “Analog”

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Unless, of course it is “Digital”

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Analog/RF Interfaces

Digital Core

SOC

`Analog & RF bring the bits to life'

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Analog has still much to offer

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Interesting fact:

There's more analog in a digital handset than in an analog handset

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Revival of Analog in Industries

WSTS Semiconductor Market Forecast Autumn 2011

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Analog design in the universitiesWidening gap between institutions and industrial practices

• Analog design is least popular in universities

– Software projects dominate

– Digital design is perceived as “easier”

• Analog is a major area of focus for TI

– TI recruits analog VLSI designers and analog field application engineers

– Our customers recruit analog system designers

• Growing gap between industrial practices and university curriculum

– Universities curriculum designed in the 1970s

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Growing gap between industrial practices and the University curriculum

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TI India Analog University Program

• Geared to reduce the gap between industrial practices and university analog curriculum

– TI India Analog Design Contest

– Faculty Internships

– Faculty Development Programs

– Analog Teaching Aids

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Analog in the curriculumA Historical Overview (1)

• Analog electronics became all-pervasive during the era of vacuum tubes … (1960s and 1970s)

– Audio amplifiers

– Radio & TV receivers

– Telephones

– Analog computers

• Circuits used passive devices (R, L, C) abundantly and active devices like electron tubes sparingly 70 Watt audio amplifier selling at

$2680 in 2011 (Wikipedia) – Music fanatics continue to swear by the quality of audio from vacuum tube amplifiers!

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A Historical OverviewEra of Discrete Transistors (2)

• In the 1970s, after the advent of transistors, BJTs JFETs and MOSFETs became popular

– “Integrated circuits” emerged

– More active devices, less of “R”, “C”

– Inductors were totally eliminated

• BJT circuits were introduced in the curriculum

– Common emitter, Common collector, Common base configurations

• Curriculum introduced Common source, common drain, common gate configurations!

– Multistage amplifiers

– Op-Amps

– Comparators

– Regulators

– Instrumentation amplifiers

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Historical OverviewEra of MOS VLSI (3)

• How the “digital” curriculum evolved

– Mead and Conway approach

– Levels of abstraction

• Transistor-level

• Gate-level

• RTL

• System-level

– Hardware description languages like VHDL and Verilog

– Logic synthesis tools and simulators

– Standard cells and design reuse

• How the “analog curriculum” evolved (or did not evolve)

– Remained unchanged

– A new course on “Linear Integrated Circuits” was introduced as an elective course in a higher semester

• Applications of Op-Amps

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What exists now as “basic electronics” curriculum

• Not much has changed in the way electronics is taught

– Elaborate introduction to semiconductor device physics

– PN junctions and Field Effect

– Device Characteristics

– Equivalent circuits

– Biasing

– Circuits such as amplifiers, rectifiers, wave-shaping circuits, …

• System-level teaching is either an undergraduate elective at a higher semester or is taught in postgraduate courses

– Popularity of microprocessors and DSP had an impact on the analog content

– Most of system level understanding could not be incorporated in basic courses

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Proposed SolutionDuplicate the success of digital design methodology

• Digital

– Truth tables and functional behavior

– Rise time, fall time, transition delay, noise margin …

– Functional models

– Combinational and Sequential logic design

– Applications

– Methodology is independent of target technology

• Analog

– I/O characteristics of basic blocks (idealized behavior)

– Frequency response, Gain-bandwidth product, limitations, slew-rate, …

– Macromodels

– Use building blocks to build larger systems (filters, AGC, control systems, etc.)

– Realization using the current technology (technologies may change – don’t start with devices!)

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Teaching Aid designed for Universities

• Analog System Lab Starter Kit – Provides a solution for teaching

analog system design– Lab manual with 10 experiments is

included– Uses op-amps, analog multipliers,

DAC, …– “Open” architecture to allow more

experiments using minimal external connections

• Focus on simulation and hands-on experimentation– Simulate using macro-models for

ICs– Build the actual circuit and compare

the response– De-emphasize transistor-level

design!

Postpone transistor-levelVLSI design to higher-levels

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ASLKv2010 Starter Kit and Analog System Lab Manual

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• Interface– Pre-amplifier, power-amplifier,

power-supply management

• Signal Conditioning– Filters (Pre-filtering and Post-filtering)

• Digital Communication– FSK, Packet Switching– Clock Generators, PLLs

1. Negative Feedback amplifiers and Instrumentation amplifiers

2. Schmitt Trigger, Astable Multivibrator

3. Integrators and Differentiators

4. Universal Active Filter

5. Voltage controlled Filter, Self-tuned Filter

6. Function Generator and VCO

7. PLL

8. AGC/AVC

9. DC-DC Converter

10. LDO

Experiments on ASLKv2010 Starter Kit

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Popularizing the Analog System Lab Kit• First university product designed and manufactured in India

• Released by Darla Whitaker (23-Feb-2011)

• Trained ~800 students and ~200 faculty• Was used to train new college graduates recruited in TI India (2011)

• Presently manufactured and sold by Cranes Software

• Established ~40 labs in 2011

• Bosch has used ASLK to train their engineers in Analog

– Bangalore campus

– Coimbatore campus

• Europe has adopted the kit in their University Program

– Mikroelektronika will produce and market the kits

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Conclusions

• Analog System Lab Kit was designed in TI India as an educational product for Indian Universities

– Attempts to change the focus from “transistor-level” to “system-level” at the basic undergraduate level

– Proposes to postpone transistor-level VLSI design to higher undergraduate/post-graduate level

• It has been adopted in Europe and is being considered by some regions covered by TI China University Program

• It is being viewed as a training kit for entry-level engineers in several customer companies such as Robert Bosch

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