Electrical and computer engineering doctoral student George Manetas recently won the "Best in Session" award for his paper "Electro-dynamic modeling of substrate noise coupling and its application to the assessment of the frequency range of validity of RC models" at the 2006 Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) Student Symposium.
Written by Maureen Wilkey, ECE External Relations Intern
George Manetas
Electrical and computer engineering doctoral student George Manetas recently won the “Best in Session” award for his paper “Electro-dynamic modeling of substrate noise coupling and its application to the assessment of the frequency range of validity of RC models” at the 2006 Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) Student Symposium. Co-authors of the paper were fellow PhD student Vassilis Kourkoulos and ECE Professor Andreas Cangellaris. The sixteen-session contest was held in Raleigh, North Carolina. The SRC is a university-research consortium for semiconductors and related technologies.
With the increasing complexity of Analog/Mixed-Signal (AMS) circuits used in wireless and optical communication devices, more powerful computer simulation tools are needed to model many aspects of their performance during the design process. Manetas is working to create more efficient and rigorous models to simulate electronic noise propagation in these circuits.
Manetas’ research mainly involves computational methods for modeling electromagnetic noise propagation in the silicon substrate of AMS chips.
“In mixed signal circuits, you have digital and analog circuits integrated together on the same chip,” Manetas said. “Some noise currents injected into the common silicon substrate, mainly from the digital part, could affect the performance of the analog part.”
Manetas has worked closely with Cangellaris in searching for efficient methods to model these effects accurately for some very high frequency applications, where previous electro-quasi-static based models found in some commercial computer tools are not adequate.
“Accurate modeling of the electromagnetic effects taking place in the chip level can be crucial for the correct design of systems operating in high frequencies,” explained Manetas.
Manetas attended undergraduate school at the University of Patras in Greece and came to Illinois because of the graduate electrical engineering program and ECE’s research in the field of computational electromagnetics. After completing his doctorate, Manetas hopes to work for a company specializing in computer-aided design tools for chip design.