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Prof. Michael P. Flynn, associate professor in the Solid-State Electronics Laboratory, received a highly prestigious 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship for his research into the fundamental limits of analog-to-digital conversion.

Flynn and his graduate students research and develop new circuit techniques for the conversion of signals between the analog and digital domains. Much of the group's work tackles analog-digital conversion for wireless and wired communication, but novel analog-digital conversion techniques are also being developed for specialized applications such as neural signal recording.

Although techniques for signal conversion between the analog and digital domains have been investigated since the dawn of computing in the 1950s, there is only limited understanding of the fundamental limits of analog-to-digital conversion. Historically, new circuit techniques and improvements in transistor technology have delivered improvements in the speed, accuracy and energy efficiency of conversion devices. Yet engineers and scientists have little understanding of the fundamental limits of performance of these circuits and, at best, there is only a heuristic insight into the tradeoffs between speed, performance, and accuracy.

The figure to the right shows a digital fractional-N modulator that directly generates a 2.2GHz MSK modulated signal. The prototype was implemented in 0.13 micron CMOS, and occupies only 0.7mm2. This work was presented at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in February.

The Guggenheim Fellowship will allow Flynn to research the fundamental limitations of these circuits, and to consider new practical approaches based on this improved understanding.

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Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment. The Guggenheim Fellowship program, sponsored by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, is unique in selecting applicants from 78 different fields, from the natural sciences to the creative arts. . The 2007 Fellowship winners include 189 artists, scholars, and scientists selected from almost 2,800 applicants for awards totaling $7,600,000.

Also honored with a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship is Roberto D. Merlin, Professor of Physics and of EECS, for his research in sub-nanometer imaging with sub-picosecond resolution. A total of five faculty from the University of Michigan received a Guggenheim Fellowship for 2007.