FALL 2014 VOL. 6 • NO. 4 www.ieee.org/sscs-news FEATURES 14 Exploring and Explaining Circuits By Yannis Tsividis Recollections from Yannis’ Graduate Student Years at Berkeley By Paul Gray 36 Yannis Tsividis’ Early Contributions to MOS Filters By John Khoury and Mihai Banu ABOUT THIS IMAGE: Columbia’s mixed-signal group in the late 1980s. Find out 41 A Mind for all Seasons who’s who in “Exploring and Explaining Circuits.” By Nagendra Krishnapura and Shanthi Pavan 44 How a Humble Circuit Designer Revolutionized MOS Transistor Modeling By Colin C. McAndrew COLUMNS/ DEPARTMENTS 48 Yannis Tsividis, Path-Breaking Researcher and Educator 3 CONTRIBUTORS By Gabor Temes 4 EDITOR’S NOTE 5 ASSOCIATE EDITOR’S VIEW 52 Yannis Tsividis, Educator 6 cONTRIBUTING EDITOR’s VIEW By David Vallancourt 7 cIRCUIT INTUITIONS Yannis Tsividis as a Role Model 9 A CIRCUIT FOR ALL SeASONS for Reversing the Negative Spiral 13 GUEST EDITORIAL of Basic Circuits and Systems Education 63 PEOPLE By Joos Vandewalle 66 CONFERENce REPORTS 68 CHAPTERS 76 IEEE NEWS 79 CONFERENce CALENDAR TUTORIAL 56 Telemetry for Implantable Medical Devices By Ulrich Bihr, Tianyi Liu, and Maurits Ortmanns Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSSC.2014.2347712 IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE FALL 2014 1 Senior Administrator, Katherine Olstein Terms to 31 Dec. 2015 IEEE SSCS, 445 Hoes Lane Arya Behzad, Shekhar Borkar, Michael H. 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ABOUT THE COVER: Canadian GST #125634188 PRINTED IN USA Yannis Tsividis, who is with Columbia University, is a born researcher and Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSSC.2014.2347713 educator. He is always interested in ideas, and his career has been an inspiration to many, including the guest editor of this issue, Peter Kinget. (Photo by Barbara Alper.) 2 FALL 2014 IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE GUEST EDITORIAL Peter Kinget A Born Educator and Researcher It has been a distinct pleasure to and academic, to have these types of Dr. Khoury and Dr. Banu, former Ph.D. coordinate the special section fea- interactions and encouragements. Of students with a distinguished career in turing the contributions of Yannis course, by now I have learned that this the IC industry, discuss the early devel- ITsividis to (solid-state) circuits and is really the hallmark of Yannis, and the opment of integrated continuous-time systems education, MOS modeling, articles in this issue illustrate this am- filters. Prof. Krishnapura and Prof. and analog and RF IC design. ply. He is a born educator and research- Pavan, former Ph.D. students who I came to know of Prof. Tsividis er. He is genuinely interested followed in Yannis’s through his papers and books while in the research of others, footsteps by choosing [Yannis] is genuinely starting out as a graduate student in stimulates the development an academic career, interested in Leuven. One summer we were fortunate of new ideas, and always recall their experiences the research of to have a summer course on analog IC strives to find the original as graduate students. others, stimulates design on campus, and he was one of source of ideas. But, like Prof. Gabor Temes re- the development the instructors. I distinctly remember no other, he is able to counts the impact of Yan- of new ideas, and his crystal-clear lectures on continu- identify new directions, nis’s work in switched always strives to ous-time filters (with hands-on simula- even if it means going capacitor filters and other find the original tion exercises in the afternoon!). Most against what is consid- areas. Prof. Vallancourt source of ideas. memorable was our discussion about ered common sense. has followed in his advi- my Ph.D. research topic, where, in a His career sets an ex- sor’s educational footsteps matter of minutes, he zoomed in on the ample for all of us in academia. It has and highlights Yannis’s unique contri- key challenges and opportunities. been a distinct pleasure to have him as butions to circuits and systems edu- A few years later after presenting a colleague and mentor at Columbia. cation. Prof. Gray and Prof. Vandewal- some of my Ph.D. results at the CICC, Being a guest editor is often con- le provide sidebars recounting their I received a letter in the mail from sidered a “hard” or even “thankless” interactions with Yannis. Thanks also Columbia University. It was a hand- job. Not this time! All contributors to the editorial board for approving written note from Yannis saying that were thrilled to write an article for the proposal to feature Yannis in this he liked my paper! this issue and were very punctual issue. Last but not least, I would like It was really thrilling and stimulating in delivering all materials in a short to thank Editor-in-Chief Mary Lanze- as a student, and later as a researcher time frame, for which I would like to rotti for her skill and efforts putting thank them.