http://www.ieee.org/portal/site/sscsSolid-States Circuits Society is the professional association for integrated circuit desingers; a member of the non-profit IEEE. with pre-searched links to IEEEs huge database of articles, conferences and products.en-usCopyright 2005 IEEE270http://www.ieee.org/portal/cms_docs_societies/sscs/images/sscs_logo.gifhttp://www.ieee.org/portal/site/sscs http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/sscs/08Summer/Lee.html The evolution of clock making, recounted in this article by Thomas H. Lee, advanced dramatically after low-power, quartz-controlled watches were first developed by Eric Vittoz and others at the Centre Electronique Horloger (CEH) over forty years ago. Due in great part to their work, even the least expensive wristwatches today are so precise that the need for better stability no longer drives their evolution. Instead, the ability to integrate more functions per unit volume explains why many watches are becoming multipurpose information appliances including PDAs, infrared remote controls, pagers, radios, TVs, walkie-talkies and MP3 players. In the future, low-power will become increasingly important as engineers struggle to address the constrained power budgets of the wristwatch form factor.Tue, 1 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/sscs/08Summer/Tsividis.html In a groundbreaking and now classic 1977 paper, Eric Vittoz and J. Fellrath meticulously characterized and developed models for devices operating in the weak inversion region, as well as a variety of circuit building blocks that could operate and exploit the exponential characteristics in this region. Their killer application -- the electronic watch -- employed techniques that are now used in a score of low-voltage, micropower applications, such as biomedical devices, hearing aids, pagers, sensor interfaces, motion detectors for pointing devices, and a variety of portable instruments. This tribute to Vittoz as an educator and industrial researcher is by Yannis Tsividis of Columbia University, an esteemed scientist and educator in his own right. Tue, 1 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/sscs/08Summer/Piguet.html While the microprocessors used today in most personal computers, PDA's and self-phones are very well known, the evolution of watch microprocessors is a completely unknown and a very "Swiss" or "Neuchatel" story. Christian Piguet, a designer of low-power low-voltage integrated circuits in CMOS technology and the author of more than a dozen patents on digital design, microprocessors and watch systems, provides a first hand view of this chronology.Tue, 1 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/sscs/08Summer/Vittoz.html Renowned as an expert in low-power CMOS circuit design and for groundbreaking work with miniature electronic devices, Dr. Eric A. Vittoz relates his life, work and times in this original retrospective for the SSCS News. According to Yannis Tsividis, also in this issue, Dr. Vittoz's influence continues to grow, as low voltage and low power become increasingly important in the engineering of mobile devices. Dr. Vittoz is a Research Fellow at the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology in Neuchatel, Switzerland, an IEEE Fellow, and a professor at EPFL, the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. He has published more than 130 papers and holds 26 patents. Tue, 1 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/sscs/08Summer/Heijne.html The introduction of silicon chips in particle physics experiments went by steps. In this summary of an article to be printed in full in the Fall News, Erik Heijne of CERN, the elementary particle accelerator laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, traces some of the history of silicon detectors and readout chips for tracking detectors that form the inner shells of the equipment. Tue, 1 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/sscs/08Summer/Enz.html The EKV MOS transistor model and design methodology evolved from the first weak inversion transistor models of the 1970's. In this first-hand account, Christian Enz chronicles the evolution of the hierarchical structure, limited parameters and flexibility of the EKV model that he developed with colleagues such as Francois Krummenacher and Eric Vittoz (the "E" "K" and "V" of EKV) at the Centre Electronique Horloger (CEH) in Neuchatel. With the aggressive downscaling of CMOS technologies today, the EKV compact model is shifting increasingly from the traditional strong inversion region toward moderate and weak inversion regions.Tue, 1 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/sscs/08Summer/Vittoz__1971Patent.html Granted in 1971, Eric Vittoz's patent for the first binary frequency divider was used in the first prototypes of the electronic watch. His frequency divider circuit included at least one logical structure complying with certain Boole Relations including two complementary input quantities and two output quantities. The logical structure comprised three pairs of field effect transistors, such as MOS-transistors having isolated gates. A cascade of such binary frequency divider circuits could be made as an integrated circuit. The SSCS News includes pages 1-2 of this patent. Tue, 1 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/sscs/08Summer/Vittoz_1975_Patent.html Patented in 1975, Eric Vittoz's "Timekeeper" was comprised of a quartz crystal resonator with a stable frequency and a relatively large tolerance, and a frequency divider with an adjustable division ratio. This divider had auxiliary electrical inputs whose logical state determined the division ratio, and an electrically alterable electronic memory that supplyied stored data to determine the logical state of the auxiliary inputs and the division ratio. The SSCS News provides pages 1-2 of this patent.Tue, 1 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/sscs/08Summer/Gyger.html In this article, Mougahed Darwish, Marc Degrauwe, Thomas E. Gyger, Gunther Meusburger and Jean Claude Robert -- a group of Swiss engineers at ETA and EM Microelectronic, the semiconductor manufacturer of the Swatch Group -- describe the consraints of the watch-making industry that have shaped watch microelectronics, and relate how the pioneering skills and solutions of quartz watch-making have diffused into other portable consumer electronics applications. Tue, 1 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/sscs/08Summer/Introduction.html According to Dr. Erik H. M. Heijne, who originated the concept of the Summer '08 issue, the reciprocity between microelectronics and consumer products and habits is perfectly illustrated by the summer 2008 issue of the SSCS News in first-hand accounts that reveal how the use of microelectronics circuits in wristwatches has forced them to improve power usage and tools for device and circuit simulation. This collection demonstrates the dynamic of IEEE as an international community of engineers with high profile and great potential, and will assuredly lead to new ideas and stimulate many in our community.Tue, 1 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/sscs/08Summer/Chandrakasan.html The idea of exploiting weak-inversion operation for low power circuits was pioneered by Dr. Eric Vittoz in the 1960's, and has led to many recent advances in sub-threshold circuit design. Today, sub-threshold operation provides a compelling solution for a number of emerging energy-constrained systems implemented in scaled CMOS technologies. This article by Joyce Kwong and Anantha Chandrakasan, to be printed in full in the SSCS Fall News, outlines some recent advances and challenges associated with sub-threshold circuit design, including the design of new logic and memory circuits, support circuitry, and the use of redundancy. Tue, 1 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/sscs/08Summer/Vittoz_1981.html Exemplifying the contributions of Dr. Eric Vittoz to low-voltage, low-power CMOS logic, this paper examines the CMOS implementation of the three basic components of SC circuits in the context of low power and low voltage, and explores the trade-off between lower power, settling time, and noise considerations. This paper will be reprinted in full in the Fall 2008 SSCS News. Tue, 1 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/sscs/08Summer/Vittoz_1969.html In May 1962, Dr. Eric Vittoz was the first electrical engineer hired by Centre Electronique Horloger (CEH), the research laboratory founded in Neuchatel, Switzerland by several organizations representing most of the Swiss watch industry. This paper represents Dr. Vittoz's early work there on an integrated complementary MOS-transistor binary counter stage realized in monolithic form, which allowed p-channel and n-channel MOSTs to be grouped together within two distinct surface areas, resulting in a reduction of the surface necessary for given circuit functions. The integrated frequency divider was used in the first prototypes of electronic watches.Tue, 1 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EDT