Michael Flynn receives CoE Staff-Faculty Partnership Award
Prof. Michael Flynn was honored with the 2023 College of Engineering Staff-Faculty Partnership Award, which he earned for his outstanding approach to collaboration and partnership with staff.
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Prof. Michael Flynn was honored with the 2023 College of Engineering Staff-Faculty Partnership Award, which he earned for his outstanding approach to collaboration and partnership with staff.
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Flynn and former group member Yong Lim receive Brokaw award at ISSCC
This Award was created to enhance appreciation and encourage innovation of simple, smart, and elegant circuit design. The Award will be presented in recognition of a unique, innovative, simple, smart, and elegant circuit design, which was created during the past decade and has demonstrated its viability.
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This Award was created to enhance appreciation and encourage innovation of simple, smart, and elegant circuit design. The Award will be presented in recognition of a unique, innovative, simple, smart, and elegant circuit design, which was created during the past decade and has demonstrated its viability.
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Flynn and Seungjong Lee receiver best student paper award at VLSI 2023
Paper: An 81.6dB SNDR 15.625MHz BW 3rd Order CT SDM with a True TI NS Quantizer
Authors: S. Lee, T. Kang, S. Song, K. Kwon, M. Flynn
Paper: An 81.6dB SNDR 15.625MHz BW 3rd Order CT SDM with a True TI NS Quantizer
Authors: S. Lee, T. Kang, S. Song, K. Kwon, M. Flynn
Mike Flynn named Fawwaz T. Ulaby Collegiate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Mike Flynn was named the Fawwaz T. Ulaby Collegiate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in recognition of his outstanding contributions in the areas of research, education, and leadership.
“Fawwaz inspires me because he is the perfect professor,” Flynn said. “Not only does he have an amazing research track record, but he also excels in service and is a tremendous educator. His genuine concern for students sets an example for us all.”
Flynn is one of the world’s premier scholars in the area of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits and systems, analog-to-digital conversion (ADC), and other interface circuits, from high-speed serial transceivers to radio frequency transceivers and sensors. His pioneering research has improved the performance and energy efficiency of analog-digital interfaces and transformed the field.
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Mike Flynn was named the Fawwaz T. Ulaby Collegiate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in recognition of his outstanding contributions in the areas of research, education, and leadership.
“Fawwaz inspires me because he is the perfect professor,” Flynn said. “Not only does he have an amazing research track record, but he also excels in service and is a tremendous educator. His genuine concern for students sets an example for us all.”
Flynn is one of the world’s premier scholars in the area of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits and systems, analog-to-digital conversion (ADC), and other interface circuits, from high-speed serial transceivers to radio frequency transceivers and sensors. His pioneering research has improved the performance and energy efficiency of analog-digital interfaces and transformed the field.
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Boyi, Taewook, Justin, and Rundao receive their doctoral degrees at the Spring 2022 commencement!
Evelyn Ware recognized by 2022 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship program
Evelyn Ware’s research explores how we can use machine learning algorithms to calibrate analog-to-digital converters. ADCs make it possible to take in analog information and then process it digitally, which is required in such disparate applications as medical imaging, 5G networks, GPS, radar and communication systems, and sensor interfaces. Calibration is often necessary to improve performance.
“Artificial intelligence and deep neural networks provide the next frontier for ADC architecture and calibration,” said Ware. “Using DNNs for calibration of ADCs has been explored in simulation but there is a striking lack of prior literature surrounding practical implementations of DNN-ADC calibration schemes on chip, which is essential for their use in real-world systems.”
Ware presented her work at the SRC TECHCON conference in 2021.
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Evelyn Ware’s research explores how we can use machine learning algorithms to calibrate analog-to-digital converters. ADCs make it possible to take in analog information and then process it digitally, which is required in such disparate applications as medical imaging, 5G networks, GPS, radar and communication systems, and sensor interfaces. Calibration is often necessary to improve performance.
“Artificial intelligence and deep neural networks provide the next frontier for ADC architecture and calibration,” said Ware. “Using DNNs for calibration of ADCs has been explored in simulation but there is a striking lack of prior literature surrounding practical implementations of DNN-ADC calibration schemes on chip, which is essential for their use in real-world systems.”
Ware presented her work at the SRC TECHCON conference in 2021.
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Flynn receives Intel’s 2020 Outstanding Researcher Award
Michael Flynn and his group are applying their groundbreaking work in beamforming to the challenge of low-power on-chip speech recognition.
Professor Michael Flynn’s collaboration with Intel related to low-power, on-chip speech recognition resulted in an Intel 2020 Outstanding Researcher Award. He is one of 18 recognized for advancing emerging innovative technologies.
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Michael Flynn and his group are applying their groundbreaking work in beamforming to the challenge of low-power on-chip speech recognition.
Professor Michael Flynn’s collaboration with Intel related to low-power, on-chip speech recognition resulted in an Intel 2020 Outstanding Researcher Award. He is one of 18 recognized for advancing emerging innovative technologies.
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First digital single-chip millimeter-wave beamformer will exploit 5G capabilities
The first fully-integrated single-chip digital millimeter-wave (MMW) beamformer, created by electrical and computer engineers at the University of Michigan, opens up new possibilities in high-frequency 5G communications. The technology could be used to improve vehicle-to-vehicle communication, autonomous driving, satellite internet, and national defense, to name a few.
Beamforming allows a device that is transmitting signals to point them in a particular direction, as opposed to having the signals radiate out in all directions – which can lead to significant interference and loss of efficiency. It is an essential technique for MMW communication, which occurs at a relatively high frequency (typically between 24GHz and 100GHz). This high frequency communication allows for high-speed data transfer, one of the key advantages of 5G.
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The first fully-integrated single-chip digital millimeter-wave (MMW) beamformer, created by electrical and computer engineers at the University of Michigan, opens up new possibilities in high-frequency 5G communications. The technology could be used to improve vehicle-to-vehicle communication, autonomous driving, satellite internet, and national defense, to name a few.
Beamforming allows a device that is transmitting signals to point them in a particular direction, as opposed to having the signals radiate out in all directions – which can lead to significant interference and loss of efficiency. It is an essential technique for MMW communication, which occurs at a relatively high frequency (typically between 24GHz and 100GHz). This high frequency communication allows for high-speed data transfer, one of the key advantages of 5G.
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Matthew Belz receives NDSEG Fellowship to improve the safety of autonomous systems
PhD student Matthew Belz received a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship for a new research project to create a jamming-resistant radar chip to improve the safety of autonomous vehicles.
“Right now, there aren’t many autonomous vehicles, but eventually we think we are going to become more prevalent” Belz says. “If everybody has the same kind of radar signal, they can accidentally jam each other, or bad actors might try to intentionally jam these signals.”
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PhD student Matthew Belz received a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship for a new research project to create a jamming-resistant radar chip to improve the safety of autonomous vehicles.
“Right now, there aren’t many autonomous vehicles, but eventually we think we are going to become more prevalent” Belz says. “If everybody has the same kind of radar signal, they can accidentally jam each other, or bad actors might try to intentionally jam these signals.”
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Prof. Mike Flynn receives Rackham Distinguished Graduate Mentoring Award!
Flynn is one of five U-M professors honored with this award, which recognizes his excellence in mentoring doctoral students and commitment to fostering a supportive academic environment.
For his excellence in mentoring doctoral students, Professor Mike Flynn has received a Rackham Distinguished Graduate Mentoring Award. Flynn was one of five recipients across the entire university.
"Professor Flynn is most deserving of this award,” says Prof. Zhengya Zhang, who nominated Flynn. “He is a committed educator who genuinely cares about his students, their research, their life and their future. His dedication to student mentorship has influenced a class of junior colleagues, including myself. His leadership in graduate education has had a lasting impact on the mentorship and recruiting in ECE.”
Flynn is one of the world’s premier scholars in the area of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits and systems, analog-to-digital conversion (ADC), and other interface circuits, from high-speed serial transceivers to radio frequency transceivers and sensors. His pioneering research has improved the performance and energy efficiency of analog-digital interfaces and transformed the field.
read more...
Flynn is one of five U-M professors honored with this award, which recognizes his excellence in mentoring doctoral students and commitment to fostering a supportive academic environment.
For his excellence in mentoring doctoral students, Professor Mike Flynn has received a Rackham Distinguished Graduate Mentoring Award. Flynn was one of five recipients across the entire university.
"Professor Flynn is most deserving of this award,” says Prof. Zhengya Zhang, who nominated Flynn. “He is a committed educator who genuinely cares about his students, their research, their life and their future. His dedication to student mentorship has influenced a class of junior colleagues, including myself. His leadership in graduate education has had a lasting impact on the mentorship and recruiting in ECE.”
Flynn is one of the world’s premier scholars in the area of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits and systems, analog-to-digital conversion (ADC), and other interface circuits, from high-speed serial transceivers to radio frequency transceivers and sensors. His pioneering research has improved the performance and energy efficiency of analog-digital interfaces and transformed the field.
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Peter Brown Graduates May 2020!
Peter Brown presented his Ph.D. defense on Monday, April 13th, "Sparse Approximation Accelerators with Spiking Neural-Networks."
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Peter Brown presented his Ph.D. defense on Monday, April 13th, "Sparse Approximation Accelerators with Spiking Neural-Networks."
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Congratulations to John Bell for Graduating in May 2020!
John Bell presented his Ph.D. defense on Friday, April 10th, "Generalized Noise Shaping in Delta Sigma Modulators."
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John Bell presented his Ph.D. defense on Friday, April 10th, "Generalized Noise Shaping in Delta Sigma Modulators."
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Lu Jie Presents Another Paper at ISSCC 2020
Lu Jie again presented a noise-shaping SAR ADC paper at the prestigious International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco this February.
This time, it was a 4th-order single-channel noise-shaping version.
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Lu Jie again presented a noise-shaping SAR ADC paper at the prestigious International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco this February.
This time, it was a 4th-order single-channel noise-shaping version.
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Upgrading signal interfaces for better wearable devices
PhD student Hsiang-Wen Chen has been awarded the Chia-Lun Lo Fellowship – an award that assists outstanding students in Rackham programs who have earned a previous degree from a university in Taiwan.
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PhD student Hsiang-Wen Chen has been awarded the Chia-Lun Lo Fellowship – an award that assists outstanding students in Rackham programs who have earned a previous degree from a university in Taiwan.
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Memristors and CMOS integrate to multiply
By integrating a memristor crossbar array with complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) control circuitry, a programmable neuromorphic computing chip can be created that is capable of efficient multiply–accumulate operations. The cover shows an optical microscopy image of the integrated chip, with the 54 × 108 crossbar array at the centre.
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By integrating a memristor crossbar array with complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) control circuitry, a programmable neuromorphic computing chip can be created that is capable of efficient multiply–accumulate operations. The cover shows an optical microscopy image of the integrated chip, with the 54 × 108 crossbar array at the centre.
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First programmable memristor computer aims to bring AI processing down from the cloud
ANN ARBOR—The first programmable memristor computer—not just a memristor array operated through an external computer—has been developed at the University of Michigan.
It could lead to the processing of artificial intelligence directly on small, energy-constrained devices such as smartphones and sensors. A smartphone AI processor would mean that voice commands would no longer have to be sent to the cloud for interpretation, speeding up response time.
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ANN ARBOR—The first programmable memristor computer—not just a memristor array operated through an external computer—has been developed at the University of Michigan.
It could lead to the processing of artificial intelligence directly on small, energy-constrained devices such as smartphones and sensors. A smartphone AI processor would mean that voice commands would no longer have to be sent to the cloud for interpretation, speeding up response time.
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Congratulations to Fred Buhler on his Graduation in May of 2019!
Tuesday, May 7, Fred Buhler presented his Ph.D. defense "Energy Efficient Mixed Signal Circuit Techniques for Machine Learning and Security Applications."
The recent aggressive scaling of CMOS technology for increased performance has enabled hardware implementations of meaningful machine-learning and neural-network systems. Most machine-learning hardware implementations from the past decade are digital.
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Tuesday, May 7, Fred Buhler presented his Ph.D. defense "Energy Efficient Mixed Signal Circuit Techniques for Machine Learning and Security Applications."
The recent aggressive scaling of CMOS technology for increased performance has enabled hardware implementations of meaningful machine-learning and neural-network systems. Most machine-learning hardware implementations from the past decade are digital.
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Ian Fan Presents Poster at the Annual Spring Symposium for U of M UROP
Ian Fan (rising junior, Electrical Engineering) presented his poster on designing a sigma-delta ADC for electrode impedance spectroscopy at the spring Symposium for the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. He worked on the design with his mentor, Linda Gong.
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Ian Fan (rising junior, Electrical Engineering) presented his poster on designing a sigma-delta ADC for electrode impedance spectroscopy at the spring Symposium for the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. He worked on the design with his mentor, Linda Gong.
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Lu Jie Presents Paper at ISSCC 2019
Lu presented his paper on time-interleaving technique applied to noise-shaping SAR
ADCs, at the highly acclaimed International Solid State Circuits Conference in San
Francisco, CA this February. His talk was well-prepared, and highly popular with his
colleagues.
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Lu presented his paper on time-interleaving technique applied to noise-shaping SAR
ADCs, at the highly acclaimed International Solid State Circuits Conference in San
Francisco, CA this February. His talk was well-prepared, and highly popular with his
colleagues.
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CONGRATULATIONS TO 2018 GRADUATES FROM THE FLYNN GROUP!!
Congratulations to Sunmin Jang, Ph.D., Daniel Weyer, Ph.D., and Adam Mendrela, Ph.D.!
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Congratulations to Sunmin Jang, Ph.D., Daniel Weyer, Ph.D., and Adam Mendrela, Ph.D.!
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Congratulations to Daniel Weyer, PhD student in the Flynn group, on having his paper accepted to ISSCC 2018!
Daniel’s paper on an FMCW chirp synthesizer PLL was accepted to the highly prestigious IEEE
International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) held in San Francisco, CA in February of 2018. In his paper, Daniel describes his work on a digital fractional-N 38GHz PLL and introduces
a noise-shaping TDC based on a bandpass delta-sigma modulator.
Daniel was spending the fall of 2017 in the bay area where he was doing an internship when he
learned that his paper had been accepted. “The day when I learned the news was the most
memorable day of my internship. My phone went off several times that morning. This is a big
deal.”
Flynn Group at VLSI 2017
The Flynn Group presented three papers at the VLSI Symposium in Kyoto in June.
- M. B. Dayanik, D. Weyer and M. P. Flynn “A 5GS/s 156MHz BW 70dB DR Continuous-Time Sigma-Delta Modulator with Time-Interleaved Reference Data-Weighted Averaging” 2017 IEEE Symposium on VLSI Circuits
- Y. Lim and M.P. Flynn, “A Calibration-free 2.3 mW 73.2 dB SNDR 15b 100 MS/s Four-Stage Fully Differential Ring Amplifier Based SAR-Assisted Pipeline ADC” 2017 IEEE Symposium on VLSI Circuits
- F. N. Buhler, P. Brown, J. Li, T. Chen, Z. Zhang and M. P. Flynn, “A 3.43TOPS/W 48.9pJ/Pixel 50.1nJ/Classification 512 Analog Neuron Sparse Coding Neural Network with On-Chip Learning and Classification in 40nm CMOS” 2017 IEEE Symposium on VLSI Circuits
Fred Buhler Builds Better Chips for "Aweslome" Applications
ECE PhD student Fred Buhler is working on more efficient chips for a broad range of applications, including machine learning, neural networks, security, and circuits testing. A member of Prof. Michael Flynn’s lab since he was an undergrad, Buhler's work has resulted in high-profile published papers and a new company, Aweslome, LLC.
Aweslome was founded in 2016, and is currently owned and operated solely by Buhler. The company offers consulting work on custom hardware platforms, and sells equpiment designed to help small fabless and research integrated circuit (IC) designers test and characterize their own products. His products condense the functionality of bulky and expensive lab equipment into a single small platform, and show superior noise characteristics under all testing conditions.
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ECE PhD student Fred Buhler is working on more efficient chips for a broad range of applications, including machine learning, neural networks, security, and circuits testing. A member of Prof. Michael Flynn’s lab since he was an undergrad, Buhler's work has resulted in high-profile published papers and a new company, Aweslome, LLC.
Aweslome was founded in 2016, and is currently owned and operated solely by Buhler. The company offers consulting work on custom hardware platforms, and sells equpiment designed to help small fabless and research integrated circuit (IC) designers test and characterize their own products. His products condense the functionality of bulky and expensive lab equipment into a single small platform, and show superior noise characteristics under all testing conditions.
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Congratulations to Nick Collins on completing his PhD defense!
Read more about his research on Mismatch-Immune Successive-Approximation Techniques for Nanometer CMOS ADCs here.
"During the past decade, SAR ADCs have enjoyed increasing prominence due to their inherently scaling-friendly architecture. Several recent SAR ADC innovations focus on decreasing power consumption, mitigating thermal noise, and improving bandwidth, however most of those using non-hybrid architectures are limited to moderate (8-10 bit) resolution. Assuming a nearly rail-to-rail dynamic range, comparator noise and DAC element mismatch constraints are critical but not insurmountable at 10 bits or less in sub-100nm processes. "
Read more about his research on Mismatch-Immune Successive-Approximation Techniques for Nanometer CMOS ADCs here.
"During the past decade, SAR ADCs have enjoyed increasing prominence due to their inherently scaling-friendly architecture. Several recent SAR ADC innovations focus on decreasing power consumption, mitigating thermal noise, and improving bandwidth, however most of those using non-hybrid architectures are limited to moderate (8-10 bit) resolution. Assuming a nearly rail-to-rail dynamic range, comparator noise and DAC element mismatch constraints are critical but not insurmountable at 10 bits or less in sub-100nm processes. "
Congratulations to Chunyang Zhai on completing her PhD defense!
Read more about her research on building blocks for sampling and digitization in high-speed communication systems here.
"High-speed communication systems enable global interaction between people from different nations and from different places on earth. Advances in communication technology and semiconductor fabrication technology have led to exponential growth in the speed and capacity of communication systems. At the same time, many of today’s applications such as remote video meeting and on-line streaming have pushed the needs for bandwidth."
Michael Flynn Earns U-M Faculty Recognition Award
Prof. Michael Flynn has received a Faculty Recognition Award by the Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan. Faculty Recognition Awards are intended for faculty early in their careers who have demonstrated substantive contributions to the university through achievements in scholarly research or creative endeavors; excellence as a teacher, adviser and mentor; and distinguished participation in service activities of the university.
Prof. Michael Flynn Elected IEEE Fellow for Contributions to Analog-Digital Interfaces
Prof. Michael Flynn has been elected IEEE Fellow, Class of 2015, for “contributions to analog-digital interfaces.” Prof. Flynn has achieved important breakthroughs in the performance and energy efficiency of analog-digital interfaces. His research has significantly impacted three primary areas: 1) analog to digital conversion; 2) the analog-digital interface in wired and wireless communication systems; and 3) applications to complete systems, particularly brain-machine interfaces.
Flynn Presents in IEEE SSCS Distinguished Lecture Series At Georgia Tech, June 2014
Although analog-to-digital converters have existed for more than 70 years, new ADC techniques continue to emerge. ADC architectures are evolving to deliver higher performance and also to take advantage of improved process performance. This presentation will discuss three new ADC architectures. A noise-shaping scheme shapes comparator noise and quantization noise in a SAR ADC. A bandpass ADC architecture enables efficient IF digitization. A new ring amplifier structure improves the resilience and efficiency of the ring amplifier architecture.
Although analog-to-digital converters have existed for more than 70 years, new ADC techniques continue to emerge. ADC architectures are evolving to deliver higher performance and also to take advantage of improved process performance. This presentation will discuss three new ADC architectures. A noise-shaping scheme shapes comparator noise and quantization noise in a SAR ADC. A bandpass ADC architecture enables efficient IF digitization. A new ring amplifier structure improves the resilience and efficiency of the ring amplifier architecture.