CMOS

Redesigning CMOS Electronics: What, Why and How?

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KAUST

A little more than half of the world’s population enjoy benefits of information technology which is enabled by complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) electronics. Going forward, we will enjoy further augmentation of quality of life through integrated CMOS electronic systems consisting of logic, memory, communication devices, energy storage and harvester, power management units, sensors and actuators. Their main attributes will include but not limited to high performance and storage capacity for data management; seamless connectivity; energy efficiency; hyper-scale integration density; appropriate functionalities based on their applications and operational environment; reliability and safety; and finally affordability and simplicity to expand their user base to include those who do not have any access to them today. Even using last fifty years’ wealth of knowledge and experience, such integrated electronic system development and deployment is a monumental engineering challenge. From that perspective, redesigning CMOS electronics might seem to be an overly ambitious goal specially, if that means transformation of such physically rigid complex electronic systems into a fully flexible one. To address this intriguing challenge, we have developed a unique coin like architecture based soft singular platform, which can be used as the building block of standalone fully flexible CMOS electronic system with all the aforementioned characteristics. We have devised an effective heterogeneous integration strategy based on mature and reliable CMOS technology only to integrate hybrid materials and diverse set of devices for multi-disciplinary applications. These will be the focus of this talk.

Prof. Muhammad Hussain selected as distinguished lecturer for the IEEE Electron Devices Society

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Prof. Muhammad Hussain has been selected as a distinguished lecturer for the IEEE Electron Devices Society (EDS). The IEEE sponsored EDS Distinguished Lecturer Program exists for the purpose of providing IEEE EDS Chapters with a list of quality lecturers.

Prof. Hussain named Fellow of Institute of Nanotechnology, UK

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Dr. Muhammad Mustafa Hussain an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering from founding batch faculty has been named as the Fellow of Institute of Nanotechnology, UK.

An integrated energy-efficient capacitive sensor digital interface circuit

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Hesham Omran, et al., "An integrated energy-efficient capacitive sensor digital interface circuit." Sensors and Actuators A: Physical 216, 2014, 43. In this paper, we propose an energy-efficient 13-bit capacitive sensor interface circuit. The proposed design fully relies on successive approximation algorithm, which eliminates the need for oversampling and digital decimation filtering, and thus low-power consumption is achieved. The proposed architecture employs a charge amplifier stage to achieve parasitic insensitive operation and fine absolute resolution. Moreover, the output code is not

A 7.9 pJ/Step Energy-Efficient Multi-Slope 13-bit Capacitance-to-Digital Converter

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Hesham Omran, et al., "7.9 pJ/step energy-efficient multi-slope 13-bit capacitance-to-digital converter." IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs 61 (8), 2014, 589. In this brief, an energy-efficient capacitance-to-digital converter (CDC) is presented. The proposed CDC uses digitally controlled coarse-fine multi-slope integration to digitize a wide range of capacitance in short conversion time. Both integration current and frequency are scaled, which leads to significant improvement in the energy efficiency of both analog and digital circuitry. Mathematical analysis for

KAUST team achieves remarkable flexibility with Silicon

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KAUST's Integrated Nanotechnology Lab are working to transform cutting-edge materials to make high-performance devices, but also about portability - they will have to be flexible, stretchable and reconfigurable

A low‐power 802.11 ad compatible 60‐GHz phase‐locked loop in 65‐nm CMOS

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Hammad M. Cheema, et al., "A low‐power 802.11 ad compatible 60‐GHz phase‐locked loop in 65‐nm CMOS" Microwave and Optical Technology Letters 57 (3), 2015, 660. A 60‐GHz fundamental frequency phase locked loop (PLL) as part of a highly integrated system‐on‐chip transmitter with on‐chip memory and antenna is presented. As a result of localized optimization approach for each component, the PLL core components only consume 30.2 mW from a 1.2 V supply. A systematic design procedure to achieve high phase margin and wide locking range is presented. The reduction of parasitic and fixed capacitance

Stretchable Electronics Make Thermotherapy Easier for Arthritis Patients

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A paper has been published to cover a new technology that makes electronic devices stretchable while retaining their electrical and thermal properties.

Scientists made cutting edge 'smart skin' with household items

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Congratulations to Prof. Muhammad Hussain whose smart skin project made out of cheap household materials such as foil and tape - was featured on the Washington Post and a few other news media.

The Institute of Physics (IoP), nominated Prof. Muhammad Mustafa Hussain for the Fellowship at the Institute of Physics

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Prof. Muhammad Mustafa Hussain nominated for the Fellowship at the Institute of Physics (IoP), UK.

Prof. Muhammad Hussain's article selected for "2015 Applied Physics Letters Editors' Picks

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Prof. Muhammad Hussain's article "Functional integrity of flexible n-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors on a reversibly bi-stable platform" was selected for "2015 Applied Physics Letters Editors' Picks"- published by the American Institute of Physics - a scientific journal featuring concise, up-to-date reports on significant new findings in applied physics.

Wide-range adaptive RF-to-DC power converter for UHF RFIDs

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Mahmoud H. Ouda, et al., "Wide-range adaptive RF-to-DC power converter for UHF RFIDs." IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters 26 (8), 2016, 634. A wide-range, differential, cross-coupled rectifier is proposed with an extended dynamic range of input RF power that enables wireless powering from varying distances. The proposed architecture mitigates the reverse-leakage problem in conventional, cross-coupled rectifiers without degrading sensitivity. A prototype is designed for UHF RFID applications, and is implemented using 0.18 μm CMOS technology. On-chip measurements demonstrate a

Muhammad Hussain elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS)

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The Fellowship is an international distinction assigned only to highly selected scientists for their contributions in the fields of APS, and was given to Prof Hussain for contributions to exploration, evaluation, and transition of planar and nonplanar high-k/metal gate complementary metal oxide semiconductor electronics, silicon/silicongermanium/ III-V nanotube devices, and flexible, stretchable, reconfigurable complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor electronic systems.

Self-destructible electronics is a Mission Impossible no more

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In today's digital age, the increasing dependency on information makes everyone potentially exposed to privacy invasion and cyber security. Annual reports on tech-safety breaches are alarming, with stolen portable devices, laptops or mobiles, along with hacked hardware skyrocketing to 50% in the United States only. Bigger the picture, global is the risk of unwilling access to private lives or strategical documents, with everyone in the eye of the most dangerous of information violation. In such cases, an immediate ability to remotely destroy the sensitive parts, if it is not possible to regain them, would save us.

Costless and reliable 3D high-speed printing process to revolutionize decal sensors fabrication

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Attempts for 3D fabrication of decal electronics were previously made. But, rigid, bulky, and planar CMOS electronics were larger in size and limited in adaptability with the human body. Unwillingly, such obsolete device creates localized heating, power-loss and grumpy data performances.

Dental braces get smart

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-By Francesca Serra Muhammad Hussain, associate Professor of electrical engineering at the Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Science and Engineering Division of KAUST, recently developed a new dental brace technology that can straighten teeth faster and more effectively than actual products. The orthodontic system was designed to induce faster bone regeneration and to enhance protection of the enamel. According to Hussain and his team, the technology is going to introduce a paradigm shift in orthodontic treatments "The integration of high performance inorganic mechanically conformable and

Experimental behavior evaluation of series and parallel connected constant phase elements

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Georgia Tsirimokou, et al., "Experimental behavior evaluation of series and parallel connected constant phase elements". AEU-International Journal of Electronics and Communications, 74, 2017, 5. Fractional-order capacitors are the core building blocks for implementing fractional-order circuits. Due to the absence of their commercial availability, they can be approximated through appropriately configured passive or active integer-order element topologies. Such a topology, constructed using Operational Transconductance Amplifiers (OTAs) and capacitors has been implemented in monolithic form

A biosensor-CMOS platform and integrated readout circuit in 0.18-μm CMOS technology for cancer biomarker detection

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Abdulaziz Alhoshany, et al., " A biosensor-CMOS platform and integrated readout circuit in 0.18-μm CMOS technology for cancer biomarker detection". Sensors, 17(9), 2017, 1942. This paper presents a biosensor-CMOS platform for measuring the capacitive coupling of biorecognition elements. The biosensor is designed, fabricated, and tested for the detection and quantification of a protein that reveals the presence of early-stage cancer. For the first time, the spermidine/spermine N1 acetyltransferase (SSAT) enzyme has been screened and quantified on the surface of a capacitive sensor. The sensor

CMOS-RC Colpitts oscillator design using floating fractional-order inductance simulator

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Kartci, Aslihan, et al. "CMOS-RC Colpitts oscillator design using floating fractional-order inductance simulator." IEEE 61st International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS). IEEE, 2018, 905. This paper deals with CMOS fractional-order inductance (FoL) simulator design and its utilization in 2.75 th order Colpitts oscillator providing high frequency of oscillation. The proposed floating FoL is composed of two unity-gain current followers (CF±s), two inverting voltage buffers, a transconductor, and a fractional-order capacitor (FoC) of order 0.75, while the input intrinsic

Analog backpropagation learning circuits for memristive crossbar neural networks

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Krestinskaya, Olga, "Analog backpropagation learning circuits for memristive crossbar neural networks." 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS). IEEE, 2018, 1. The implementation of backpropagation algorithm using gradient descent operation with analog circuits is an open problem. In this paper, we present the analog learning circuits for realizing backpropagation algorithm for use with neural networks in memristive crossbar arrays. The circuits are simulated in SPICE using TSMC 180nm CMOS process models, and HP memristor models. The gradient descent operations are

Democratizing electronics one step at a time

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"You would not believe how many amazingly talented people there are in the world, but they often are just not exposed to opportunities," noted Muhammad Mustafa Hussain, KAUST professor of electrical engineering and currently a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He is determined to try and change this—one step at a time.

Professor Hussain elected IEEE Fellow

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Muhammad Mustafa Hussain, KAUST professor of electrical engineering, was recently elected as an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Fellow, effective January 1, 2020, for his “contributions to flexible and stretchable electronic circuits.

Taking engineering to the masses 

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KAUST, like many other international research institutions, is no different in its approach to addressing our current need for continuous and uninterrupted distance learning. E-learning has proved effective in theoretical and mathematically-oriented disciplines, where access to a computer locally or over the cloud is all that is required.

Hammad Mehmood Cheema

Hammad Mehmood Cheema worked as a Post Doctorate Fellow at Integrated Microwaves Packaging Antennas & Circuit Technology (IMPACT) Research Group with Professor Atif Shamim at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) during (2011-2013). Currently, Hammad is working as an Associate Professor at the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST). Ph.D. Thesis: Hammad Mehmood Cheema, “Flexible Phase-Locked Loops and Millimeter Wave PLL Components for 60-GHz Wireless Networks in CMOS,” A catalogue record is available from the Eindhoven University of Technology Library, ISBN

Boon-Eu Seow

Visiting Student, Photonics Laboratory
Boon-Eu Seow was a Ph.D. Visiting student from National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Tainan, Taiwan at Professor Boon Ooi's Photonics Laboratory at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). He received the B.Eng. (Electronics & Computer) from University Putra Malaysia and the M.Eng. (Microelectronics) from Multimedia University, Malaysia. Research Interests His research interests includeD CMOS RF/millimeter-wave integrated circuits, phase-locked loops and high-speed integrated circuits for wireless communications, optical communications and radar sensing applications