The Integrated Circuit Design Program within the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department received a gift check in the amount of $50,000 from SigmaTel, Inc., an Austin-based semiconductor company.
The donation will support the research of Dr. Shouli Yan’s Mixed-Signal Integrated Circuits Research Lab. Yan conducts research in the areas of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits, and part of the research involves innovations that can improve consumer electronic devices such as MP3 players, computers and digital televisions.
“SigmaTel’s donation will help to educate the young talents, and also will boost our research, in the field of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits, especially in the areas of analog-to-digital and digital-to-digital converters with state of the art CMOS technologies,” Yan said.
Yan, an assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering, seeks to improve the design of integrated circuits that convert analog signals, such as sound, to digital signals, which allow data to be processed, transmitted and stored in digital form. The circuits also convert signals from digital back to analog. In addition, Yan studies analog pre- and post-processing circuits such as amplifiers and filters in those highly integrated mixed-signal electronic devices.
“The work could eventually help to improve the entire semiconductor industry,” said Len DiSanza, SigmaTel vice president of the technical staff.
SigmaTel recognizes the importance of supporting research that is “forward looking” in the semiconductor industry and supporting engineering students who will make up the industry’s future workforce. The company also donated funds in February to the university’s Wireless Networking and Communication Group.
“We will continue to look at other areas of work that UT is doing, specifically in electrical engineering,” DiSanza said.
SigmaTel designs and markets proprietary, analog intensive, mixed-signal multimedia semiconductors for portable and consumer applications. The company provides highly-integrated circuits, customizable firmware and software, software development tools, reference designs, and applications support.
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