IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Spring 2021 - 82

Ruffino's Ph.D. public presentation with the announcement of his Predoctoral Achievement Award to Society members in Switzerland.
quality factor for on-chip transformers,
the fully integrated proposed
architecture reaches a peak power
density of 1 W/mm2
.
Novello discusses challenges in conventional charge pumps and the motivation to get to
resonant dc-dc.
the frequency choice, and details on
the spectral content of the output frequency
considering the delta-sigma
modulator. The session lasted about
40 min, and participant feedback was
positive (although a few would have
appreciated a little more refresher information,
as Distinguished Lecturers
usually provide in their introductions).
The next Ph.D. Student Update session
was held on 25 February 2021
and fostered a discussion of papers
accepted for ISSCC [6]. The slides are
available from the same platform [4].
The presentation, by ETH Ph.D. stu82
SPRING
2021
dent Alessandro Novello, was hosted
through the WebEx platform of the
IEEE Member and Geographic Activities
Committee, and the recording
was made available on IEEE TV [5].
The presentation took participants
through the current technology
and motivations to move toward
fully integrated resonating or hybrid
dc−dc converters. It detailed the architecture
and its actuation methods,
concluding with a benchmark of the
proposed architecture and its performance
with respect to the stateof-the-art
research. Despite the low
IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE
The presentation was followed by a
detailed question-and-answer session
on process requirements and eventual
options that might help improve
the passive aspect and active devices.
There was also some curiosity about the
applicability of the topology in buckboost
converters. The session lasted
about 50 min. Participant feedback was
very positive, and attendees appreciated
the clarity of the presentation.
Finally, the SSCS Switzerland Chapter
is delighted to observe the recognition
of Andrea Ruffino as one of 23 students
who received the IEEE SSCS Predoctoral
Achievement Award. Society members
joined to congratulate Andrea for this
achievement. We look forward to more
events in the summer of 2021.
-Mathieu Coustans, Michel Bron,
Domenico Pepe, Jiawei Liao,
Alessandro Novello, and
Taekwang Jang
References
[1] " IEEE Swiss SSC talks (Webinar) / Ph.D Student
update / low power oscillators. " IEEE vTools.
https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/247516
[2] " IEEE Swiss SSC talks Nov2020 Ph.D Student
update: Low power oscillators. " IEEE.tv.
https://ieeetv.ieee.org/video/ieee-swiss
-ssc-talks-nov2020-phd-student-update
-low-power-oscillators

https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/247516 http://www.IEEE.tv https://ieeetv.ieee.org/video/ieee-swiss-ssc-talks-nov2020-phd-student-update-low-power-oscillators https://ieeetv.ieee.org/video/ieee-swiss-ssc-talks-nov2020-phd-student-update-low-power-oscillators https://ieeetv.ieee.org/video/ieee-swiss-ssc-talks-nov2020-phd-student-update-low-power-oscillators

IEEE Solid-States Circuits Magazine - Spring 2021

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