IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Spring 2020 - 80

Matthias Eberlein Honored With the IEEE Brokaw Award
for Circuit Elegance

M

Matthias Eberlein of Intel Germany/
Johannes Kepler University, Linz,
Austria, was honored with the firstever IEEE Brokaw Award for Circuit
Elegance. Eberlein was presented
the award at the 2020 International
Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC),
San Francisco, California.
The IEEE Brokaw Award for Circuit
Elegance was established in 2019 to
honor the legacy and contributions
of Paul A. Brokaw, thanks to a gen-
erous philanthropic gift to the IEEE
Foundation. "Although rarely listed
in the specifications-for me-ele-
gancy and beauty are very important
properties of electronic circuits," said
Bram Nauta, IEEE Solid-State Circuits
Society (SSCS) past president. "I felt
so excited when Paul Brokaw offered
to sponsor this award, to highlight
and celebrate these."
This award was created to enhance
appreciation for and encourage inno-
vation of simple, smart, and elegant
circuit design and is presented to a
design created during the previous
decade that has demonstrated its via-
bility. "I feel not only showered with
honor, for winning this award right
after its first presentation, but I am,
in particular, excited about the move
to recognize the artistic aspect of
circuit design," said Eberlein. "In my
professional context so far, I expe-
rienced little reward for simple yet
elegant solutions, but rather a weary
smile or even demotion. It's high
time to promote again the beauty of
simplicity, as done here in memory
of Paul Brokaw's contribution."
Integrated circuits have evolved
into very complex systems that can
contain many millions of small ele-
mentary circuits constructed using a
handful of transistors. Many of these
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSSC.2020.2987236
Date of current version: 24 June 2020

80	

S P R I N G 2 0 2 0	

Paul Brokaw receives a standing ovation from the conference attendees.

Matthias Eberlein is presented the IEEE Brokaw Award for Circuit Elegance at ISSCC 2020
(from left): SSCS President Kenneth O, Eberlein, and Paul Brokaw.

circuits utilize known basic circuit
techniques that often were invented
decades before, such as bandgap ref-
erence, class-AB amplifier bias stages,
analog multipliers, various oscilla-
tors, and even simple switches with
bootstrap or charge-canceling tech-
niques. Each of these circuits exhibits
an "elegance" wherein several criti-
cal functions are combined into just

IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE	

a few components, resulting from a
highly creative process. One could
compare this elegance to a short yet
beautiful poem in the world of books
or even movies.
While the focus in IC design has
shifted to complexity and function-
ality, the goal of the IEEE Brokaw
Award for Circuit Elegance is to stim-
ulate and celebrate the invention of
IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Spring 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Spring 2020
