About Us
The Analog VLSI Lab at The Ohio State University was founded by Professor Mohammed Ismail. Over the years, it has become a world-renowned research entity in CMOS analog, mixed-signal, and RF integrated circuits design. Professor Ismail graduated more than 55 Ph.D. students and 100 Master's students. He is currently the Chair and Professor of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Wayne State University and the Founding Director of the WINCAS Center of Excellence. You can learn more about Professor Ismail and the lab's history here.
Dr. John Hu is the 50th Ph.D. student of Professor Ismail. He joined Oklahoma State University in the Fall of 2019 after a fruitful career with Texas Instruments, Maxim Integrated, and Qualcomm Inc. The Analog VLSI lab at Oklahoma State University intends to continue the great tradition of Analog VLSI research in integrated power management, hardware security, and energy-efficient computing.
Research Experience for Teachers (RET) Site
Application Website: https://ceat.okstate.edu/stem/ret/
Date: June 12-June 30, 2023, and July 10-July 28, 2023
Teachers from Oklahoma high schools and community colleges are encouraged to apply! We will start reviewing applicants shortly.
We are proud to receive a grant (#2206941) from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to run a RET Site: Chip Design Experiences for Teachers to Stimulate Semiconductor Education in Oklahoma starting 01/01/2023. Dr. John Hu will be the Principle Investigator (PI). Co-PIs are Dr. James Stine, Dr. Wooyeol Choi, and Dr. Erin Dyke.
NASA EPSCoR Research Initiation Grant (RIG)
Dr. Hu received a Research Initiation Grant (RIG) from the Oklahoma NASA EPSCoR office. The research project is titled "Radiation Hardened Analog VLSI for Space Scientific Instruments" in collaboration with Goddard Research Center. The project will investigate Radiation Hardened By Design (RHBD) techniques for mixed-signal IC circuits. (Image credit: NASA MERiT)
NIST Seminar: Oh, the Testbeds You Can Test!
When: 10:30 a.m. Thursday, May 12
Where: ATRC 101
Abstract: Private and public entities are often forced to use local telecommunication infrastructure for critical applications. Misconfigured or compromised wireless devices/networks are a significant concern. Cyberattacks exploit multiple fronts simultaneously, hiding within the benign variation of the device/network. Telecommunication infrastructure testbeds can be leveraged to validate and assess novel multilayer security solutions and use cases. Performing measurements using these testbeds is challenging, particularly when they include commercial-grade telecommunication hardware. In this talk, we will discuss accurate and precise measurements using a solid methodology and well-established experimental principles.
Speakers: Dr. Jeanne T. Quimby, Dr. Jacob D. Rezac. Communication Technology Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Batteryless Energy Harvesting (RAISE)
Team 1: Field Test: Extracting energy using TEG. BLE Radio. Sensors
Team Member (alphabetical order): Anfal Hussain, Aaron J. Sosa, Ryan Vaughan.
A thermoelectric generator (TEG) can harvest energy from the temperature differences between the soil surface and shallow ground. When tested in April in Oklahoma, the TEG generates 10~40 mV of stable DC voltage. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol can be used to send data. The relationship between the duty cycle and system power consumption was explored. Moisture & humidity sensors were also implemented.
Sponsor: Renewable and Innovative Sustainable Energy (RAISE): Martin Family Foundation (MFF) Fund.
Batteryless Energy Harvesting (RAISE)
Team 2: DC-DC Boost Converter Design & Test. MCU. Electronics Test
Team Member (alphabetical order): Agustin Garcia, Chester Stubbs, Jame Ming Tan
A flyback ("Boost") converter was designed and tested using a commercial off-the-shelf IC (MCRY12) and 1:50 transformer. It can boost up to 1V of DC voltage when the TEG input voltage is around 20 mV. The Boost converter PCB measures about 0.5 square inches (or 2 cm²), compact enough to be integrated with the TEG and the copper rod.
Sponsor: Renewable and Innovative Sustainable Energy (RAISE): Martin Family Foundation (MFF) Fund.

Invited Talk at OSU IEEE Student Chapter
What is VLSI? What are solid-state circuits? What is the job prospect in the field?
Dr. Hu gave his perspective on the history, applications, and the future of VLSI to undergraduate students at the IEEE Student Chapter at Oklahoma State University. In the face of unprecedented global competition, Dr. Hu encouraged the students to join the field for tremendous growth and a fun ride.
2021 Kicker Design Competition
ECEN 5363 (Mixed-Signal IC Design) and ECEN 3714 (Network Analysis) held a joint student design contest in Fall 2021. The winners are:
Best Design: "A Dynamic Bias Comparator Design and Layout with Performance Simulations" by Fahim Hossain, Sam Fellwock.
People's Choice: "Side-Channel Attack with ChipWhisperer" by Christian Moser.
The contest was sponsored and judged by Kicker, a high-performance audio company headquartered in Stillwater, OK. [More Details]
Nipun received IEEE CASS Travel Grant
Nipun Kaushik has been selected to receive the 2021 IEEE Circuits and Systems Society (CASS) Student Travel Grant.
"The CAS society is especially proud and happy to honor your outstanding accomplishments and we look forward to maintaining future close contact with you in the future." said in the announcement email (4/26) by Amara Amara, IEEE CASS President.
CASS offers Studen Travel Grant awards to enable the winners to present their research work at CASS flagship conferences. Nipun will present his work [IEEE Xplore] in 2021 ISCAS. Congratulations to Nipun!
Our Research at ISCAS 2021
Two of our papers will appear in the SPECIAL SESSION: Design and Detection of Hardware Trojans in Cyber-Physical Systems at the 2021 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits & Systems (ISCAS), to be held in Daegu, Korea.
"Power Side-Channel Attack Detection Through Battery Impedance Monitoring", by Rowshon Munny and John Hu. [IEEE Xplore]
"A Switched-Capacitor Power Side-Channel Attack Detection Circuit in 65-nm CMOS", by Nipun Kaushik and John Hu. [IEEE Xplore]
Congratulations to Rowshon and Nipun!
Here is a graduate student presentation during ECEN 5363: Mixed-Signal IC Design.
Introduction to Convolutional Neural Network
We have created our YouTube Channel to facilitate stay-at-home learning.
Here is a clip from our ECEN 4010: Mixed-Signal Electronics: student presentation
Software Defined Radio: Live Demo in Stillwater, OK