The Department of Electrical Engineering

Over the last four decades, the capabilities of integrated circuits (ICs) have expanded at an exponential rate according to Moore’s Law. As a result, their application space has also expanded, from isolated server rooms to desktops to personal-area swarms to within the body. The pace has brought ICs to a point where they now face fundamental limits of energy, density, and performance. As a result, modern IC design requires new methods of scaling. Fortunately, since ICs have expanded into such a broad range of applications, there are many new opportunities to push their limits. These opportunities, however, are extremely diverse, requiring circuits that exploit the properties of new algorithms, new materials and devices, and new application characteristics.