News & Events (2013)

Three MICS students graduate and join semiconductor industry (December 2013)

Three MICS students graduated with MS degrees in 2013 and have joined the semiconductor industry.

• John Turner (Advisor: Ha), Linear Tech in Raleigh, North Carolina, “Power Management ICs”
• Maruf Ahmed (Advisor: Ha), Freescale in Tempe, Arizona, “RF ICs”
• Hetaswi Vankani (Advisor: Ha), Qualcomm in Raleigh, North Carolina, “Physical Layer”

All three students worked for their companines as summer interns. Congratulations to John, Maruf, and Hetaswi. We wish you good luck in your careers!

MICS held a holiday season dinner party with their families (December 2013)

The MICS group had a dinner party with their families at Holiday Inn on December 19, 2013, which has become a MICS annual event. MICS people enjoyed an informal gathering of colleagues, friends and families. Prof. Dong Ha (MICS Director) talked about the achievements of MICS in 2013 and major goals for the new year. Then, each MICS person shared a couple of pictures of his/her memorable travels. Ross Kerly played tuba to entertain the people. We wish a Happy New Year to the MICS people and their families. More pictures on the MICS party.

15 industry people attend second “MICS Day” (December 2013)

The MICS group held its second “MICS Day” with 15 industry guests from ten different companies on December 6, 2013. It was an all-day event that gave an opportunity for the MICS faculty and students to present their research activities and for industry people to introduce opportunities and research needs of their companies. All three MICS faculty members and 18 MICS students made oral and poster presentations and eight industry people presented activities of their companies. MICS Day concluded with a tour of the newly established MICS lab and other ECE labs for industry attendees. A list of companies that attended MICS Day is as follows; BAE Systems, Halliburton, Linear Tech, Lockheed Martin, Luna Innovations, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Teledyne Scientific, Virginia Diodes, and VPT. MICS Day was highly successful, and the industry attendees were impressed with the achievements of MICS group over the past one year. More pictures on the MICS Day.

BEA Systems joins the MICS group industry affiliates program as a principal member (November 2013)

BAE Systems has joined the Industry Affiliates Program (IAP) of the VT Multifunctional Integrated Circuits and Systems (MICS) group. The primary purpose of the MICS IAP is to establish close collaboration, technology transfer, and student interactions between MICS and the Industry Affiliate partners. Under the IAP program, BAE Systems and MICS will pursue a long term collaboration in RF/mixed-signal IC design to support interest areas of BAE Systems, while advancing MICS research and student development. BAE Systems’ IAP funding will help support an M.S. or Ph.D. student whose thesis/dissertation work is synergistic with the company’s technology roadmap. The engagement will be led on the BAE Systems’ side by Mr. Frank Stroili, Director of RF Systems Technology and Microelectronics at BAE Systems.

“BAE Systems has core interests in electronic warfare, communications and sensor systems for national security applications and we look forward to working with Virginia Tech to innovate in RF/mixed-signal IC designs for such applications, as well as to help develop the future engineering workforce,” said Stroili.

Open position for a graduate research assistant (GRA) in CMOS transceiver design (August 2013)

Prof. Dong Ha is looking for a graduate research assistant (GRA) in the area of analog or RF IC design. The position is open immediately and projected for multiple years. Ph.D. students are preferred, but MS students with the required skill set are also encouraged to apply.

The student will be involved in a project which develops key building blocks of a transceiver in CMOS technology for a 400 Gigabit optical communication system; this is the second year of the five year project. The position requires good knowledge in analog circuit design and RF ICs (desirable but not critical). Experience with IC design and Cadence design tools is highly preferable.

If you are interested in the position, please send your resume to Prof. Dong Ha (ha@vt.edu). The resume should include grade point average (GPA), relevant courses taken, and experience in IC design, if any. 

Ha delivered a tutorial on energy harvesting at ISCAS (May 2013)

Prof. Dong Ha delivered a half-day tutorial on energy harvesting at the IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS) held in Beijing, China, in May, 2013. ISCAS is the flagship conference of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, and attended by over 1,000 people annually from mostly North America, Europe, and Asia.

Prof. Ha’s tutorial entitled “Small Scale Energy Harvesting (EH) – Principles, Practices, and Future Trends” reviewed principles of energy harvesting, practices for small scale energy harvesters, and self-powered wireless sensor modules developed recently in industry and academia. Industry trends and possible research issues for further developments were also covered to provide a technical insight into energy harvesting techniques and their applications.

The tutorial was well received, and the conference room was filled to its maximum capacity of 80 people. The Tutorial Chair appreciated Prof. Ha for his delivery of a fine tutorial with over 150 slides. Prof. Ha also gave a talk at Tsinghua University following the end of ISCAS.

Four MICS graduate students take summer internship (May 2013)

Internship provides a great opportunity to gain real world experiences and to develop industry contacts. The following MICS graduate students are working as summer interns in this summer.

• Maruf Ahmed (Advisors: Ha and Koh), Freescale in Tempe, Arizona, “RF IC Design”
• Ross Kerley (Advisor: Ha), Texas Instruments in Santa Clara, California, “Power Management Circuits”
• Kanika Saini (Advisors: Koh and Raman), RFMD in Greensboro, North Carolina, “Simulation of Integrated Passive Devices”
• Jebreel Salem (Advisor: Ha), Halliburton in Houston, Texas, “High temperature communication circuits”