The Real World is Analog: TxACE Celebrates Its 10-year Anniversary

A PLACE TO DISRUPT TRADITIONAL BUSINESS MODELS, CREATE NEW ONES

The proliferation of electronics is everywhere — from consumer products, apps, sophisticated biomedical devices, artificial intelligence (AI), and in many smart devices that make up the Internet of Everything (IOE).

What all these “things” have in common is that they deal with signals from the real world: analog to digital. The real world is analog — fundamentally nature is not digital — and that’s where our story begins.

During the mid-2000s, leaders of companies like Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) saw that analog signal topics were becoming more critical and realized future implications would grow over time.

Dr. David Yeh, assignee from Texas Instruments and senior director at Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), recalled, “TI, the SRC, and The University of Texas at Dallas had discussions about the growing importance of analog design research and decided they wanted to invest in university research in this particular area. They also decided that if we had a center of some kind, we could call attention to these particular topics and encourage innovative research.”

And who better to handle this need than the high-tech giant and billion-dollar corporation of TI, and the nearby, fast-growing UT Dallas?

“With TI so close, SRC and its leadership thought UT Dallas would be a good place to headquarter this particular center,” Yeh said.

The Texas Analog Center of Excellence (TxACE) was officially established in 2008. Announced by then Gov. Rick Perry, the center was founded on a $16 million collaboration between SRC, the State of Texas, TI, The University of Texas System, and UT Dallas.

In predicting great achievements from TxACE, Dr. Kenneth O, director of TxACE and holder of the Texas Instruments Distinguished University Chair, said, “Our facility brings together people from diverse backgrounds to enable technology that people working in one particular discipline couldn’t come up with on their own. We are finding solutions to some of the great challenges the world faces today through research at this facility.”

Today, TxACE is recognized as a world-class analog technology center for both traditional electronics and emerging applications. The center has distinguished itself as the largest analog research center based in an academic institution. TxACE not only provides great economic benefits for companies in North Texas, but also sustains the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex as a leader in technology development and job creation.

TI AND UT DALLAS

Much is written about the vison of TI founders Eugene McDermott, J. Erik Jonsson and Cecil H. Green. In the early 1960s they recognized the need to grow industrially, to help expand the D-FW region, and also grow academically by providing an intellectual atmosphere to allow industrial competition and creative minds to come together. The three established the Graduate Research Center of the Southwest in 1961, which was renamed the Southwest Center for Advanced Studies (SCAS) in 1967. The founders made a gift of the assets of SCAS to the state of Texas in 1969, setting in motion the creation of UT Dallas.

But, how exactly did all this TxACE business come together? Let’s turn the analog clock back and listen to the members stories of how they remember it. They were there at the beginning — from bringing the idea to fruition, funding, hiring the right talent, developing curricula, to sustaining an academic culture that continues today and provides students with real-world experience and knowledge in the field of analog technology.

Strategic changes occurring within TI around the time of TxACE’s founding reflected what was happening in the high-tech world in regards to research and development (R&D).

“Another phase of the change was underway, said Dr. Robert Doering, research manager in the technology and manufacturing group at TI. “TI and most other semiconductor companies in the U.S. and around the world further evolved their research models toward market/product-specific internal R&D and toward university research for the longest-range exploration.

“TI reached a decision before TxACE was formed that the best market opportunities for us would be in analog. And in embedded processing, which together enable ubiquitous systems supporting the entire analog-to-digital-to-analog signal-chain.”

Dr. William Krenik PhD’93, chief technologist of custom products for Texas Instruments, echoes those sentiments.

“Prior to founding TxACE, the SRC had been largely focused on process development,” Krenik said. “The SRC and TI recognized that as the industry evolves analog was going to be very important, and doing research focused on analog was also going to be important.”

About the same time, UT Dallas was in the midst of an expansion period that included more than doubling research expenditures, initiating or completing $300 million of construction, adding 17 degree programs and raising $100 million in private funds.

“The relationship between TI and UT Dallas continued to be successful after the University founding,” said Dr. Hobson Wildenthal, executive vice president and Cecil H. Green Distinguished Chair of Academic Leadership. “At the time of TxACE founding, TI leaders thought that no organization was focusing on analog anymore and they needed to ensure a supply of educated analog engineers, and with our legacy and growth we were confident UT Dallas could fill that need.”

Recruiting the proper talent, many of whom would become faculty members in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, was crucial.

“It was clear that TI wanted a preeminent group of scientists working on analog systems, so with that directive in hand, I got involved in the responsibility of finding the right talent to connect all the pieces together,” said Wildenthal, who was chief academic officer of UT Dallas for 25 years.

Dr. Bruce Gnade, former vice president for research at UT Dallas and professor emeritus of materials science and engineering in the Jonsson School, was one of the people involved in establishing the center. Besides securing funding, Gnade said the other big piece in establishing TxACE was attracting the right director.

“That was Dr. O,” Gnade said. “If I had anything to do with it all, hopefully it was to help convince Ken to become the director, which I think has turned out to be a tremendous win for UT Dallas.”

Dr. O was already a leading authority in the field of analog electronics at the University of Florida. His research group was one of the first to show that Radio Frequency CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) technology — which is used to fabricate radio circuits in almost every cellphone — is viable. CMOS technology is used to fabricate the bulk of integrated circuits including microprocessors, memory chips and imagers. Dr. O’s group set records for the highest operating frequency for transistor circuits in 2008 and continues to expand the application of CMOS technology. In addition to holding an endowed chair at the University and directing TxACE, Dr. O is a professor of electrical and computer engineering in the Jonsson School.

Dr. O was inspired by the industry vision of collaboration with academia.

“Analog was a future profit maker in the field, and I saw a way to contribute my expertise and impact society,” he said. “I was inspired by the idea of using the local academic infrastructure to make such an impact.

“This is very much the original vision staying alive in TI. That’s how it all started.”

TxACE TODAY

Currently, TxACE is organized into four core areas called thrusts. These areas allow students to research and develop work in their area of interest.

“When we started the center, we wanted to concentrate on research in energy efficiency, healthcare, public safety and security,” said Yeh, research manager for TxACE. “These are topics that still resonate with the members, and here we are 10 years later, and there is even more demand for innovative research to provide and expend the fundamental capability to take analog and mixed-signal electronics into markets where previously it was not possible.”

“These core areas are big societal problems,” Dr. O said. “The kinds of problems TxACE was created to solve.”

The unique relationship between UT Dallas, SRC and TI offers several important benefits. Corporate managers are often asked, “Do we have the resources to dedicate an application engineer to a project for six months that might not have a payoff?” Universities can take that risk and, in exchange, students get real-world experience. Even if the project does not yield the intended expectations, TxACE can benefit from the risk because students still gain experience and knowledge.

“In our business, we have to invest in research and development — TI believes very much in the impact of research,” Krenik said. “Our local university, UT Dallas, is very important to that mission. TxACE for us was a great opportunity to not only attract students interested in analog research, but also attract a top faculty to North Texas.”

The center prepares the next generation of engineers for global challenges. Through each assignment at TxACE, students interface with industry partners and develop practical skills such as project updates and effective email exchanges —— critical aspects for any team-oriented project in fulltime work.

Many engineers are busy with their daily tasks and getting products to market, industry partners say. They do not have the time to browse the research literature. However, at TxACE, research is part of their work —— to stay fresh, have a broad base of knowledge and explore the latest trends and types of technologies. Students also get an opportunity to see outside the research lab and view the big picture of industry practices and trends, allowing them to put into perspective their research.

TI and other SRC members offer career opportunities for many students who graduate from TxACE.

“A number of students who have been trained at TxACE have gone to work at companies that support the research, such as TI, Intel Corp, IBM, NXP Semiconductors, Global Foundries and others,” Gnade said. “The students that come out of TxACE and UT Dallas are making a big impact in the analog industry.”

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE LOOK LIKE FOR TxACE?

As technology continues to get more granular, concepts like internet of everything (IoE) are bringing together people, data and things to make networked connections more relevant and valuable. For example, look no further than voice user interface (VUI) found in Amazon’s increasingly popular Echo and Alexa-powered products.

There is steady consumer growth in smart thermostats like Nest, home lighting systems, remote controls, alternative payment acceptance apps, smarter supply chains, and more investment from large and small companies in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Every industry presents unlimited possibilities, new capabilities, richer experiences, and unprecedented economic opportunity for businesses, individuals and countries. Analog will play a role in each of these areas.

“Analog electronics is a very important part of TI right now,” Krenik said. “TxACE is focused on analog. There’s a whole bunch of reasons why doing research in analog is fundamental. We live in an analog world. We believe TxACE has some incredible contributions that they’ll be making over the years to come.”

Research TxACE Is Planning for the Next 10 Years:

• Techniques for sensing and prediction to allow earlier intervention and prevention of catastrophic events.
• Imaging technology for harsh environments by developing CMOS integrated circuits that can image through fog, smoke, dust, smog and other dangerous situations to help improve safety of self-driving cars.
• Advanced Programmable E-nose technology and broaden its application areas.
• Technologies that can ensure analog integrated circuits do not contain weaknesses that can be exploited by a security breach to help enable the internet of everything (IoE).
• Analog-digital hybrid computing to help narrow the many orders of magnitude (1,000 to 100,000) energy efficiency gap between the human brain and machines that perform high-level cognitive functions.

TxACE Tenth

TxACE has every reason to proudly celebrate its 10-year anniversary. As industry and consumers continue to drive innovation, TxACE will meet the demand with new curricula and programs to support the latest technologies — whatever they may be.

“A lot has been done in 10 years,” Yeh said. “But there’s a long way to go in this particular space over the next 10 years: it’s still growing, still vibrant, there is still a lot of innovation, so I’m looking towards the future of TxACE.”

The significance of the milestone is not lost on Dr. O. He considers TxACE’s first 10 years a testament to visionary leaders and strong partnerships.

“TxACE is one of the shining examples of how industry, academia and government can work together to actually benefit all the people involved and society at large. That’s exactly what the founders of TI wanted when they created UT Dallas,” he said. “This is the occasion to celebrate what we have accomplished, review how we can be better and, more importantly, renew and refresh the vision for the next 10 years.”