Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The increasing adoption of wireless technologies for anytime/anywhere, mobile and secure communications requires increasingly broader frequency bands. At the same time, the need for higher capacity and bandwidth in wire-line communication networks is increasing the signal speed to multi-gigabits per second and beyond. At such high data rates, high frequency effects in electronic packages and systems become the dominant factors limiting the overall performance of microelectronic systems. Consequently, accurate and early prediction of these effects is a necessity in preserving signal integrity in high-speed designs. In addition, the fast rising demand for multifunction and miniature products warrants mixed-domain integration of heterogeneous circuit components. Moreover, shrinking voltage levels due to the strong demand for low-power requirements are leading to highly stringent noise margins. As a result, advanced accurate simulation and design methodologies become increasingly indispensable in achieving the next generation of communication and computing products. The objective of the proposed research is to develop a new generation of modelling, simulation and optimization algorithms which address the emerging challenges in designing large-scale, mixed-domain systems. The research activities will be focused on generic strategic issues common to high-speed applications and will advance the state-of-art in a broad spectrum of interrelated topics including circuit simulation, variability analysis, optimization, signal and power integrity, model-order reduction techniques and high-speed interconnects and design tools for mixed-domain analysis. In addition, several research initiatives will be targeted towards the development of new design automation algorithms and methodologies suitable for the emerging parallel computing platforms. The proposed research will provide designers with the ability to efficiently plan and design large-scale systems which are not currently feasible; resulting in more innovative and superior products.