Faculty of Engineering (FE) of American International University – Bangladesh (AIUB) organized a seminar titled "Analog Circuit Design: Design out of Passion" included in the “Dr. Anwarul Abedin Lecture Series” by renowned researcher Mr. Ahmad S Mazumder (Director of Engineering, Analog & Mixed Signal IP Development, Silvaco Incorporated,USA) on October 25, 2023 (Thursday) in the AIUB Auditorium. The research talk was focused on the significance of analog circuit design in modern society and the technological innovations related to the industry’s growth. Prof. Dr. Md. Abdur Rahman (Pro Vice-Chancellor, AIUB) inaugurated the seminar with a welcome speech where he emphasized the importance of analog design and its integration with digital and mixed signal systems.
In the beginning of his engaging talk, Mr. Mazumder discussed the recent trends in the semiconductor industry such as smart cities, autonomous cars and artificial intelligence. After briefly covering the basics of semiconductor switching, he overviewed the process technologies that contributed to System on Chip (SOC) growth such as Strained silicon, High-K metal gate, FinFET and EUV lithography. He detailed how Moore’s law, the observation that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years, was realized over the years despite a temporary stall in lithographic innovation. The speaker explained how factors like mobility, dielectric permittivity, on current/off current ratio impact transistor performance. Noting how conventional transistor performance worsens with shrinking dimensions, he identified FINFET, a type of field-effect transistor (FET) that has a thin extended gate of a fin shape, as a promising technology that would become mainstream in upcoming years. FINFET allows three channels to exists with same footprint and helps solve the on current/off current ratio issue at only 2-3% extra cost, and shared his experience working for the first 22nm FinFET technology by Intel.
In the last part of his talk, Mr. Mazumder asserted the need for analog design by using an RF system as an example. He provided a brief refresher on CMOS technology and stated that the merit of semiconductor switches lies in their ability to manipulate the device current. To familiarize the audience with dominant analog circuitry, he performed some comparisons between the use of CMOS in analog and digital design, and also between Op-Amp and Common Source MOSFET amplifier voltage gains. He followed up on these observations by discussing the fundamentals of analog design and the unpredictability of the 8 parameters. At the very end, he inspired the audience to embrace the spirit of engineering leadership.
The chief guest of the event was Mr. Ishtiaque Abedin (Founder Member and Chairman, Board of Trustees, AIUB). At the end of the program, Prof. Dr. Md. Abdur Rahman presented the honorable speaker with a token of appreciation from AIUB for sharing his valuable time and insight. The seminar concluded with a group photo of all the participants of the seminar.
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