Prof. Liscidini of University of Toronto

Nowadays, both digital and analog electronics are reaching fundamental limits that will require revolutionary approaches to satisfy the power/bandwidth requirements of the next generation of data-driven applications.

In the first part of the talk, analog and digital signal processing will be compared in terms of power efficiency by highlighting the presence of a thermodynamic upper-bound which relates dynamic range, bandwidth and power dissipation. To circumvent this limit, in the second part of the talk, the quantized-analog signal processing will be introduced. In such approach, analog and digital domains are merged together in a more fluid scenario compared to traditional mixed-signal circuits avoiding the needs of rigid interfaces such as analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters.

It will be shown that the quantized-analog signal processing leads to superior power efficiency and flexibility compared to its analog counterpart and it represents a good candidate for the development of a new generation of mixed signal integrated circuits.  The effectiveness of the proposed solutions will be demonstrated through simulations and measurement results.

Biography:

Antonio Liscidini received the Laurea (summa cum laude) and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy, in 2002 and 2006, respectively. During the PhD. he was a summer Intern with National Semiconductors, Santa Clara, CA, USA. From 2008 to 2012 he was Assistant Professor with the University of Pavia and a Consultant for Marvell Semiconductors.  

In 2012, Prof. Liscidini moved to the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, where he is currently a Full Professor and Associate Chair. He has been consultant for several companies such as Huawei and Marvell Technology Group. His research interests are focused on analog mixed-signal interfaces with particular emphasis on the implementations of transceivers and frequency synthesizers for wireless-wireline communication and ultralow-power applications. 

Dr. Liscidini was a recipient of the Best Student Paper Award at the IEEE 2005 Symposium on VLSI Circuits, and a co-recipient of the Best Invited Paper Award at the 2011 IEEE CICC and the Best Student Paper Award at the 2018 IEEE ESSCIRC. He is currently Associate Editor in Chief of IEEE Transactions On Circuits And Systems-Part II. He has served as an Associate Editor for the IEEE TCAS2 Express Briefs, IEEE OJ-SSCS, and as a Guest Editor for the IEEE JSSC, and IEEE RFIC VJ, IEEE Solid State Circuit Letters.  He has been member of many TPC for different conferences including ISSCC, ESSCIRC, CICC. Prof. Liscidini was a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society from 2016 to 2018.