Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Electronic devices are part of our day to day lives. An electronic device or system is meant to handle information in the form of electrical signal. In the real physical world, the signals change continuously with time. Such signals are referred to as analog signals.The current research work will involve inventing new electronic devices that can be built using modern sub-micron (smaller than one-millionth of a meter) integrated circuit technologty. The device and any bigger system built using these devices should operate reliably under varying enviromental conditions. The emphasis will be on to save the bettery power and to process analog electrical signals that changes very rapidly with time. Thus the work will involve analysis, design and implemenattion of low power, high frequency, robust, reliable anlog integrated circuits and systems. Our research will concentrate on devices which can work with electrical signals that change several hundred million times (or more) in a second. These signals are referred to as high frequency signals. These devices may find use in variety of electronic systems such as fiber optic communication, computers, personal communication devices, wireless communication and so on. It is known that devices operating at high frequencies consume substantial power from the battery. However, special optimization technique can be used to reduce this power consumption. Thus our work will involve innovations for low-power high-frequency electronic devices. All electronic devices working with analog signals exhibit changes in functionality with changes in environmental conditions i.e., temperature change, battery voltage change and so on. By applying special feedback techniques, such changes can be minimized. Thus our task will involve research for creating reliable and robust analog electronic devices and systems. Europe and Asia have very strong base in analog and radio frequency electronics. We hope that our research shall provide Canadians with a group of very highly skilled technical personnel in this competitive area of electrical engineering.