IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Fall 2016 - 32

Submissions to JSSC always have come from
authors working in industry, academe, and
government and other nonprofit organizations.
Future Trends
When JSSC was established in 1966,
electronic systems other than digital computers employed analog representations of all information. (See
"Recollections of the Era before SolidState Circuits" for some personal recollections from earlier years.) Digital
computers built with discrete components were very expensive. The
development of solid-state integrated
circuits changed everything.
Today, probably over 99% of all electronic circuits are digital. The economy, reliability, and programmability of
digital implementations favor their use
whenever possible. However, the interfaces to people and many important

real-world signals still are analog. JSSC
continues to publish papers on the latest designs of microprocessors and
memories, with a focus on features that
maximize performance while minimizing power consumption.
Many papers report advances in
analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog
converters. Timing recovery circuits including phase-locked and delay-locked
techniques make frequent appearances. On-chip power conversion and
power distribution circuit designs are
often reported. A growing category of
papers report on circuit design for biomedical applications; sensors and sensor interfaces are critical aspects in this
application area. Methods for reducing

active and standby power consumption
are reported in many papers. Quite a
few papers report complete "systems
on a chip," often with transistor-level
circuit innovations tailored to meet requirements of a critical end application.
The field of solid-state circuits
has matured in many ways. However,
ongoing progress in materials and
manufacturing technologies continue
to provide opportunities to improve
the functions, performance, and power
efficiency of well-established electronic products. Further, innovative new
applications for solid-state electronics
continue to be found. Documenting
these developments will continue to
be the important mission for JSSC well
into the future.

Acknowledgments
IEEE Xplore, Google Scholar, and Harzing's Publish or Perish were valuable
resources as I prepared this article.

thE rEd rAg LEgAcy
In 1987, I left Hewlett-Packard Co. to return to graduate school. My
first foray into what it meant to be a graduate student was when I
met Prof. Dave Allstot at Oregon State University to learn about his
research. I walked into his office, and the first thing I saw on his desk
was a red periodical. He talked about his research on data converters
and gave me a short tutorial. Then he opened up what he referred
to as the "red rag," a name that stuck with all of his graduate students.
As a new graduate student, reading the red rag was intimidating. The
content is dense, the work meticulous, and the author pictures are often
scary. I remember discussing with the other graduate students (probably
avoiding work) that someday we hoped to publish our work in IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (JSSC), and publishing the first paper in JSSC
has special meaning-it's a rite of passage.
In those days, there was no IEEE Xplore, and you had to look up the
papers the old-fashioned way. We would trek over to the library and
walk up and down the aisles, pulling out one edition at a time looking
for interesting and relevant papers. Our favorite issue was December
because it had the majority of analog papers. After reading so many
papers, it was exciting to go to conferences to meet the famous people
who had created the IC industry. There are so many interesting personalities-Barry Gilbert, the translinear magician, Paul Gray, the father of
analog ICs, Bob Pease, the mad scientist of analog design, Eric Swanson,
the grand giant of analog, and so many others. They inspired us to think
creatively, work collaboratively, and pursue knowledge relentlessly.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSSC.2016.2602178
Date of publication: 14 November 2016

FA L L 2 0 16

IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE

What a technology legacy JSSC has spawned that has fundamentally
changed our lives. Would the founders have imagined the advances reported in JSSC would lead to cell phones adopted across the world, GPS
navigation for anyone, Internet-connected everything, and electronic assistance in all aspects of our lives-even toothbrushes? What will the next
50 years bring? Will the graduate students of 2066 call JSSC the red rag?
-Terri S. Fiez
About the Author
Terri S. Fiez (terri.fiez@colorado.edu) is the vice chancellor for research
and innovation at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Prior to September 2015, she was head of the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Oregon State University (OSU). In 2008-2009 she took
a leave of absence from OSU to cofound, launch, and serve as CEO of
a solar electronics startup company. From 1990 to 1999, she was an
assistant and associate professor at Washington State University. She
received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the
University of Idaho in 1984 and 1985, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree
in electrical and computer engineering from OSU in 1990. Her scholarly
interests focus on analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits and novel
approaches to innovative education where she has published over 150
papers and advised over 80 graduate students. She received the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Predoctoral Fellowship, an NSF Young Investigator, the
2006 IEEE Educational Activities Board's Innovative Education Award,
and the 2016 IEEE Undergraduate Teaching Award. She is a Fellow of
the IEEE and has been a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Circuits and
Systems and Solid-State Circuits Societies.

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