Title:  Low Power Mixed Signal System Design Environment using Floating-gate FPAAs

Committee:

Dr. Jennifer Hasler, ECE, Chair , Advisor

Dr. Saibal Mukhopadhyay, ECE

Dr. Sung-Kyu Lim, ECE

Dr. Aaron Lanterman, ECE

Dr. Scott Koziol, Baylor University

Abstract:

The objective of this research is to create a low-power mixed-signal system design environment using FG FPAAs. To achieve this, my research focused on implementing a compact hardware, developing algorithms and tools, and establishing a solid calibration flow. The first phase, implementing a compact hardware, involved developing FG SoC FPAAs including an FG programming infrastructure and built-in self test circuits, as well as designing smaller test boards to enable IoT embedded applications. Secondly, FG FPAA systems need to provide interfacing tools for application designers. This required a synthesis toolset generating a switch list from the user's design and an FG programming algorithm compatible with the SoC FPAAs. Lastly, a solid calibration flow solved the variation problem of each IC, which has been an issue in typical analog system designs. By coordinating the development of these three phases, it has been enabled to provide a powerful low-power system design environment, where system engineers consider analog circuits as black boxes, so they can enjoy the design and implementation of higher level applications, as if they are designing digital systems.