IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Fall 2023 - 19

90°
135°
45°
will yield new clues, even if it doesn't
get you all the way over the goal line.
And remember: the more severe the
problem, the more likely it is to be
something simple and-in retrospect-obvious.
You will find this!
60
50
40
30
20
10
185°
0°
225°
Signal Legend:
Right
Left
Difference
Good Luck!
Fixing unexpected distortion can
be tough. Hopefully, phase info
can help you out. At the very least,
presenting your theories and results
in spiffy " phase-aware " polar
form will make you look smart
and on top of the problem, even if
you're clueless. (I speak from personal
experience.)
Let me know if this material has
been useful: shifobrains@ieee.org.
315°
270°
FIGURE 6: Evolution of differential second-order distortion with frequency. Black and orange data
are the individual single-ended components. Blue is the vector differential that the ADC measures.
Note A: Resonance in right side. Note B: Phase shift caused by resonance results in large vector
difference. (Data are for a 1 GHz to 8 GHz fundamental in 100-MHz steps. Radial axis is in LSBs.)
References
[1] C. Mangelsdorf, " OMG, PSRR!: Protect
yourself from your supplies [Shop Talk:
What you Didn't Learn in School], " IEEE
Solid-State Circuits Mag., vol. 15, no. 3, pp.
10-17, Summer 2023, doi: 10.1109/MSSC.
2023.3287343.
[2] https://github.com/CMangelsdorf/SSCM/blob/
main/SSCM/Fall_2023/Phase_Calculations
PRESIDENT'S CORNER (continued from p. 5)
electricity and magnetism material in
their course offerings because they
do not have adequate training and
they lack supporting resources.
Do similar problems affect middle
and high-school education in your
region? We need enthusiastic and
well-prepared teachers equipped
with the knowledge and resources
to properly prepare high-school students
for entry into engineering.
Returning to the pipeline of
Figure 1, we see that about onethird
of high-school graduates enter
an engineering program, and 70%
of
those students receive a Bachelor's
degree. Critically, the annual
output of M.Sc. and Ph.D. graduates
trained in IC design from this academic
pipeline is truly a drop in the
bucket. It does not sustain a halftrillion-dollar
industry. Companies
desperate to hire trained staff are
then forced to look elsewhere, and
often resort to short-term solutions,
such as outsourcing and mergers/
acquisitions to grow quickly.
With fewer than one in 10 female
members, there is clearly a strong
" gender gap " in the IEEE Solid-State
Circuits Society (SSCS). During the
past decade, close to 40% of women
with engineering degrees across
all disciplines left the profession
or did not even enter the field in
North America. Why do they head
for the exit? Poor job satisfaction
and reliable role models, inflexible
work schedules, workplace discrimination/toxicity,
and the glass
ceiling, are all cited as reasons to
quit engineering entirely. Workplace
cultures are changing, and it's economic
arguments that are driving
companies and universities to begin
addressing broader socio-economic,
structural, and sociological issues
to resolve these problems in a coherent
way. Men play an important role in
welcoming women to the profession.
Their participation is needed
to make broader changes in work
culture succeed.
Unfortunately, solutions to these
challenges are not easy to develop or
implement, but the IEEE is using its
volunteers and organizational infrastructure
to support workforce development
in semiconductors globally.
Targeting outreach efforts at students
from grade school through to high
school can have a substantial impact.
The SSCS is developing new programs,
such as the platform for IC design outreach,
hardware design and awareness
contests, and chapter activities to
engage high-school and undergraduate
students. Partnering with other societies
in IEEE allows us to extend our reach
and makes our efforts more effective.
The future is ours to design.
Tuum est.
IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE
FALL 2023
19
B
B
A

https://github.com/CMangelsdorf/SSCM/blob/main/SSCM/Fall_2023/Phase_Calculations https://github.com/CMangelsdorf/SSCM/blob/main/SSCM/Fall_2023/Phase_Calculations

IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Fall 2023

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