Research at IITM: Centre for RF, Analog and Mixed-Signal ICs

The Centre for RF, Analog and Mixed-Signal ICs builds on the conversion of real-world signals to binary and focuses on their storage, processing and transmission. The centre overlooks research and development interests in 5 specific avenues:

• Development and design of power-efficient delta-sigma converters: This effort aims to achieve earmarking transition in the area of high-resolution and incremental delta-sigma converters. The program has already made noteworthy progress with publications on continuous-time delta-sigma modulators in the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.
• Development and design of continuous-time pipelined ADCs for wide-bandwidths: The ultimate goal of the center is to replace discrete-time pipelined ADCs. While the avenue is lucrative, it poses its own set of hurdles related to signal processing. A high-risk, high-reward effort; the work is still in its infancy.
• Development of area and energy-efficient in-memory ADCs/DACs for AI/ML interface engines: This effort aims to push for the development of power-efficient in-memory computing engines for novel AI/ML interfaces. This is an area of keen interest for the machine-learning hardware community.
• Development of high-performance serial links (SERDES): The centre overlooks the development of energy-efficient architectural techniques for 56Gb/s serial links for fast-turn on, high performance supercomputing applications and full-duplex wireline communication.
• Development of high-performance RF IC components: The centre aims for the realization of widely tunable oscillators and frequency synthesizers with low phase noise as well as compact tunable delay line. Through its publications in IEEE ISSCC, the centre has demonstrated advances in these areas.

The M.S. program in Analog/Mixed-signal design in collaboration with Texas Instruments India has been in effect for the past decade. It has proven fruitful, not only in the creation of well-trained manpower for the industry, but also in the generation of challenging and research worthy industrial problems. The program is globally recognized as the ‘dream program’ for students wishing to specialize in the area and has a highly selective admission process. A majority of MS graduates of the program are current faculty members in IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur and IIT Hyderabad. Through collaboration with top international research institutes such as the University of Twente, University of California, Los Angeles, Oregon State University and more, the centre generates quality research publications.