New Professor: Ana Rusu
Ana Rusu has been promoted as a professor in Electronic Circuits for Integrated Systems from the 1st of February.
Tell us something about your research area
Electronics for a Sustainable Society
– My research area is Electronic Circuits for Integrated Systems with focuses mainly on radio/analog and mixed-signal circuits and systems for wireless mobile applications, including low-power/ultra-low power and high performance solutions. An overview of some of my current research interests and their impact on society is given bellow.
The role of Electronics in our Daily Life
– The increasing capability in the electronics industry, as underlined by Moore’s law, has been the engine of the technological development, driving this industry for the last 40 years. This engine has enabled a wide set of technologies for sensing, actuating, processing, and communicating with the environment and open the door for new applications by progressively creating smaller, smarter and always-connected devices. The wireless communications and electronics technologies have already revolutionized the way we communicate and not only. Technologies such as Software Defined Radio (SDR), Software Radio (SR) and Cognitive Radio (CR) are already well known, but their hardware implementation in mobile devices involves some technological and design challenges. Widely accepted bottlenecks for these technologies are the radio front-end and analog-to-digital converters, which have to fulfill the specifications of a wide range of standards. Our main contributions in this area led mainly to the development of reconfigurable/programmable analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), wideband multi-standard receiver front-ends and digitally enhanced radio/analog and mixed-signal for 3G/4G radios.
Now, electronics faces a new need - sustainable society. Toward a long term response to sustainable society, the researchers started investigating technologies for future healthcare systems. Wireless healthcare systems have attracted huge attention in the last years and research efforts have been intensified more than ever, mainly towards the development of new biomaterials, biosensors, bioelectronics and wireless body area networks (WBANs). In such healthcare system the body sensors placed in/on/around patients collect all critical health information and send it in real-time to the healthcare service providers. In this context, the development of implantable bio-devices is essential. This topic is very close to my heart since I feel that a contribution in this area could have a huge impact on many people lives. Our approach towards the development of implantable bio-devices involves collaborative technologies from device to system addressed in a synergetic fashion. Therefore, this research involves a multidisciplinary team, which investigates the key design challenges: sensing, ultra-low power analog front-end and wireless communication circuitry, energy harvesting, integration and electronics packaging technologies. To achieve the desired ultra-low-power and high-reliability outcome required for these bio-devices, we apply advanced circuit design technologies and strategies. One exciting project, we are working together with our partners at Karolinska Institute and our colleagues from Integrated Devices and Circuits unit, is the development of an implantable self-powered bio-device for continuous glucose monitoring. The critical challenges we are facing here involve biocompatibility, miniaturization, integration, ultra-low power operation, which are addressed in a symbiotic manner. Another exciting project related to bio-devices involves the development of ultra-low power ADC architectures suitable for multi-channel medical applications, such as neuro-potential recording devices and portable lab equipment. Here the challenge is meeting the medical standard requirements by consuming power in the nanowatt-microwatt range.
How important is Electronics in Energy Saving?
– Over time, electronics has evolved to save power. In fact, electronics played a key role in reducing the power consumption by facilitating energy monitoring, controlling and management. Research activities directed toward low-power/ultra-low-power technologies have been always a priority for us. Some years ago, the main technological approach to reduce power was supply-voltage reduction. We are still applying this approach involving sub-threshold operation and body-driven technique together with innovative system architectures, but we are also exploring new technologies suitable for WBANs. For example, intermittent operation could be the key solution for reducing power consumption since it allows the use of wireless sensor node together with energy harvesting. However, in most of the cases it is impossible for energy harvesting to supply the power required for a bio-sensor, even when intermittent operation is applied. Therefore, we must continue our efforts to develop advance technologies to reduce the overall power consumption of the sensor to nanowatt levels. For example, appropriate signal processing within the bio-sensor can lower the data rate, reducing the overall power; On Off Keying (OOK) wireless transceivers operating intermittently, and continuously driven by energy harvesting from ambient radio waves can also contribute to reduce the overall power. Moreover, the advent of energy harvesting techniques makes the battery-free implantable bio-devices possible. In the long term, the ultra-low-power solutions and energy harvesting technologies along with the state-of-the-art ultra-low-power MCU (nW-MCU) will open the door for new smart systems, contributing to a sustainable society.
Which challenges do you and your research area have in the near future?
– I believe that the (nano)electronics will face many technological and design challenges in the near future. The critical challenges in my research area involve miniaturization, integration and energy efficiency required for the development of future smart sensors and systems. I would like to mention also the challenges of emerging technologies (such as graphene, spintronics, SiC, etc.) for THz electronics, or very high temperature electronics. Apart from the scientific challenges, one more challenge I can see in the near future - assuring constant basic research funds required for investigating new ideas and find solutions to scientific challenges. This is a very difficult task, even when you have great ideas, because there are only few foundations in Sweden that support research proposals in Electronics area. Moreover, it’s a very tough competition since the funds allocated to this research area are decreasing every year. However, until now we succeeded pretty well with the funding of our research projects. I hope that the Swedish research foundations (VR, SSF, VINNOVA) will keep (nano)electronics as a priority within their strategy in the next years.
What does the professor title mean to you and your daily work?
– I am very proud and happy of my new position, but this doesn’t change my daily work. It will not be different; I will continue doing my work as before, enjoying my teaching and research activities, and having a lot of fun working with my PhD and MS students. Being surrounded by many young people full of energy and passion it’s so exciting and rewarding.
What I want now is to go further with my activities. But who knows, something else could come into the picture. Probably in the future, I will be more involved in strategic activities at school and university level.
What are your wishes for the future for the school of ICT?
– I would like to see more harmonized activities within electronics at KTH, especially in Kista. Currently, the research activities within electronics are fragmented, and researchers working in areas related to electronics, such as material science, physics, biotechnology, microsystems, etc. cannot see our role in emerging applications such as bio-devices for WBANs and smart grids. I hope this will change with the new KTH organization in research platforms, since we have more opportunities for co-operation. By building strong teams with multidisciplinary competences we can cover the entire path for developing state-of-the art solutions for future healthcare systems, smart grids, etc. Moreover, in this way we can take full advantage of our excellent research facilities in Electrum Lab, Kista. On the other hand, I am very happy with the research co-operation and the exciting projects we have in our research unit “Integrated Devices and Circuits”. There are many initiatives for cooperation from both directions, devices and circuits, and I look forward to have excellent research achievements.
