Mixed Mode: More than Analog and Digital

R.S. Murphy - EDS Distinguished Lecturer, R. Torres (INAOE, Mexico)

In its origin, the term “Mixed Mode” referred to integrated circuits (ICs) made from digital and analog components. Mixing these types of circuits opened the field of IC design to include a vast scope of functionalities, paving the way for versatile circuits including system on chip (SoC), and lab on chip (LoC), amongst many more. Nowadays, due to the evolution of technologies, manufacturing processes including transistors than reach cut-off frequencies in the hundreds of GHz range are readily available, providing sophisticated bases for the design and development of a slew of wireless circuits impacting telecommunications, the Internet of Things (IoT), industrial and medical applications, and many more. All these wireless circuits require, besides transistors, resistors and capacitors, inductors, transmission lines on chip, through silicon vias (TSVs) for 3D integration, and antennas to transmit and receive all sorts of data. Hence, mixed mode circuitry includes many passive devices working together with active ones to be able to meet the stringent requirements imposed on these types of circuits. This talk will present the efforts that the High-Frequency Group at the Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica (INAOE: National Institute for Research on Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics) has undertaken in the last 35 years, covering different aspects of active device modeling, inductors, transmission lines, coplanar waveguides, TSVs and antennas. Some aspects regarding measurements, calibration and de-embedding will be also highlighted, as they are ever present in the characterization of devices in the high-frequency regime.