Taimur Rabuske
Analog and mixed-signal integrated circuit design · data converters · low-voltage low-power CMOS
Profile
Analog and mixed-signal IC designer with a PhD in microelectronics and more than fifteen years in CMOS silicon. I work at transistor level on data converters and the analog blocks around them — sampling networks, comparators, references and biasing — and carry blocks from architecture and behavioural modelling through schematic design, PVT and Monte Carlo verification, layout review, tape-out and bench characterisation.
Appointments
Analog/Mixed-Signal Design Engineer
- Transistor-level design of analog and mixed-signal blocks for precision data-acquisition products: converter cores, sampling networks, comparators, and reference and bias circuits.
- Block ownership end to end — architecture definition and behavioural modelling, schematic design, simulation across PVT corners and Monte Carlo, layout review, tape-out and silicon characterisation.
- Advanced-node work in FinFET and SOI processes, including noise, matching and reference-settling budgets for high-resolution converters.
Senior Researcher
- Led analog and mixed-signal circuit research in the Analog and Mixed-Signal Circuits group, focused on low-voltage low-power SAR and charge-sharing ADCs, comparators and calibration techniques.
- Supervised and co-supervised student research; designed, taped out and characterised prototype converters in processes from 0.35 µm to 28 nm.
- Member of the Scientific Council, 2017 – 2023: institutional research strategy and internal review.
Research Assistant
Doctoral and pre-doctoral work on charge-sharing SAR ADCs: architecture analysis, MOSCAP-based DACs, comparator offset auto-zeroing and self-timed SAR control, validated in four fabricated prototypes.
Visiting Scholar
Intern Researcher
Education
PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering (with honors)
Microelectronics. Thesis on charge-sharing SAR ADCs for low-voltage low-power applications, later published as a Springer monograph. Awarded with distinction and honour.
MSc, Computer Science
Thesis on techniques for power reduction in SAR ADCs.
BSc, Electrical Engineering
Expertise
- SAR, charge-sharing and charge-redistribution ADCs
- Sampling networks, track-and-hold, bootstrapped switches
- Dynamic comparators and latches; offset and noise calibration
- References, biasing and reference buffers
- Relaxation and quadrature oscillators
- Magnetoresistive sensor front-ends; multi-valued CMOS logic
- Low-voltage, low-power CMOS design
- Architecture definition and behavioural modelling
- PVT, corner and Monte Carlo verification
- Noise, matching and settling analysis; PSS/PXF/PNOISE for comparators
- Simulation-based sizing and optimisation
- Layout review, tape-out, bring-up and bench characterisation
- Cadence Virtuoso, Spectre and the analog verification flow
- Python for modelling, test automation and data analysis
- Lab characterisation of converters: static and dynamic linearity
- English — fluent
- Portuguese — native
Silicon
Chips taped out across eight process generations, in bulk CMOS, SOI and FinFET.
Books
Charge-Sharing SAR ADCs for Low-Voltage Low-Power Applications
A full treatment of the charge-sharing SAR topology: the mechanisms that limit its performance — capacitor mismatch, comparator offset and noise — with closed-form analysis, mitigation techniques, and four fabricated prototypes operating from 0.35 V to 0.6 V.
- T. Rabuske, Conversores A/D SAR por Entrelaçamento no Tempo em Tecnologia CMOS 130 nm (in Portuguese). Novas Edições Acadêmicas, 2016.
- J. Silva, D. Oliveira, D. M. Caetano, T. Rabuske and J. Fernandes, “Variable Bandwidth Chopper Amplifier for Eddy-Current Non-Destructive Testing,” book chapter, 2017. DOI 10.3233/978-1-61499-767-2-187. · doi
Journal papers
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A 0.3-mm² 1.3 µW Wireless Monitoring System IC for Hermeticity Testing of Biomedical Implants
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Integrated Circuit for Magnetic Encoder Sensing in TMR-Based Industrial Positioning System
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Maximizing Energy Harvesting in a Miniaturized Implant With an Integrated Coil Receiver
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Artificial Neural Networks for GMR-Based Magnetic Cytometry
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Calibrating Amplifiers Nonlinearity Using Comparator-Based ADCs
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High-Resolution Nondestructive Test Probes Based on Magnetoresistive Sensors
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Analysis and Background Self-Calibration of Comparator Offset in Loop-Unrolled SAR ADCs
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A 5-bit 300–900-MS/s 0.8–1.2-V Supply Voltage ADC With Background Self-Calibration
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Effect of Comparator Offset on the Linearity of Charge Sharing ADCs
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A 2.4 GHz high-performance CMOS differential quadrature relaxation oscillator
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A SAR ADC With a MOSCAP-DAC
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An 8-bit 0.35-V 5.04-fJ/conversion-step SAR ADC With Background Self-Calibration of Comparator Offset
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Quaternary Logic Lookup Table in Standard CMOS
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Noise-aware simulation-based sizing and optimization of clocked comparators
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Comparator-based binary-search ADC architectures for UWB receivers
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A 5 MSps 8-bit SAR ADC with single-ended or differential input
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A 54.2 µW 5 MSps 9-bit ultra-low-energy analog-to-digital converter in 180 nm technology
Conference papers
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Stacked Ring Oscillators with Fractional Injection Lock
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A Small-Area Current-Mode Input ΣΔ Modulator for Under-the-Sensors ADC Arrays
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An On-Chip Clock Generation Circuit for Smart Catheters
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A Temperature-Compensated 57 ppm/°C 10 MHz, 2.4 µW Stacked Ring Oscillator
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Towards a Wireless System that Can Monitor the Encapsulation of mm-sized Active Implants in vivo for Bioelectronic Medicine
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A Biomedical Imaging System Based on an Integrated Array of Magnetoresistive Sensors
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Methods for Fast Characterization of Noise and Offset in Dynamic Comparators
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Polymath: A Platform for Rapid Application Development of Modular EDA Tools
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A Sub-µW 3–10 MHz Stacked Oscillator with a Duty-Cycle Calibrated Level Shifter
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Injection Locked Oscillators with Current Reuse
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A Small-Footprint Quasi-Passive 1st-Order ΣΔ Modulator
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A 125 MS/s 10.4 ENOB 10.1 fJ/conv-step Multi-Comparator SAR ADC with Comparator Noise Scaling in 65 nm CMOS
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Tunable kΩ to GΩ pseudo-resistor with bootstrapping technique
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Variable Bandwidth Chopper Amplifier for Eddy-Current Non-Destructive Testing
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A 12-Bit SAR ADC with Background Self-Calibration Based on a MOSCAP-DAC with Dynamic Body-Biasing
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Fast settling VGA for eddy-currents non-destructive testing with an array of magneto-resistors
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A 9-b 0.4-V charge-mode SAR ADC with 1.6-V input swing and a MOSCAP-only DAC
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An efficient RF power harvester for low input power with reduced dead-zone
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Quadrature relaxation oscillator with FoM of −165 dBc/Hz
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A sub-ranging 2-step 7-bit self-calibrated comparator-based binary-search ADC
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A self-calibrated 10-bit 1 MSps SAR ADC with reduced-voltage charge-sharing DAC
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A 5-bit 1.5 GSps calibration-less binary-search ADC using threshold-reconfigurable comparators
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An IR-UWB transmitter with digital pulse duration control
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PyCO: A parallel genetic algorithm optimization tool for analog circuits
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A 749 nW 1 MSps 8-bit SAR ADC at 0.5 V employing boosted switches
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A 4-bit 1.5 GSps 4.2 mW comparator-based binary-search ADC in 90 nm
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A track-and-hold for single-ended or differential input with adjustable output common mode
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An energy-efficient 1 MSps 7 µW 11.9 fJ/conversion-step 10-bit SAR ADC in 90 nm
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A novel energy-efficient digital controller for charge-sharing successive-approximation ADCs
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Distributed version control as a tool to increase productivity in analog and mixed-signal design
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An energy-efficient successive-approximation register analog-to-digital converter in 180 nm
Patents
Service & community
Member, Analog Signal Processing Technical Committee
Review and programme work in analog signal processing for CASS conferences and transactions.
Member, Scientific Council
Reviewer
IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Transactions on Circuits and Systems I and II, Transactions on VLSI Systems, and CASS conferences.
Projects led
Position II — intravascular ultrasound catheter chip
System architect and technical lead for a TSMC 40 nm chip under severe area and self-heating constraints: analog front-end with filter and amplifier, LDOs with ultra-wideband PSR, configurable clock generation and a 10-bit 80 MSps ADC. Derived block specifications, ran the floorplan, designed the LDO, class-AB opamps and current and voltage references myself, and supervised three PhD candidates and two post-docs on the ADC, LC oscillator, fourth-order Bessel filter, SPI controller and the FPGA-based test system.
MagScopy — magnetic imaging for cancer-cell detection
System architect for a chip combining a conventional analog front-end — filtering, amplification, digitisation — with a 64×64 array of magnetic sensors post-processed on top of the CMOS die by project partners. Circuit design and layout carried out by the team under supervision.
StarChip — smart tubular devices for lab-on-chip
Planned the system and derived block-level specifications for a multi-channel chip of analog front-ends and 12-bit SAR ADCs; supervised all design activities.
TumaPos — self-characterising sensor interface chip
Architect and principal designer of a chip, test board and control software: offset-correction DAC, variable-gain instrumentation amplifier, second-order anti-aliasing filter with class-AB opamps, a 12-bit 2 MSps SAR ADC and an SPI-controlled digital block.
Awards & honours
- 2018, 2019
- Finalist, INESC-ID Best Young Researcher Award
- 2016
- PhD awarded with merits and honours, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa
- 2016
- Finalist, Prof. Abreu Faro Prize for the best PhD thesis of Universidade de Lisboa
- 2015, 2016
- Finalist, INESC-ID Best PhD Candidate Award
- 2016
- Most-downloaded paper of the month, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits — and 49th most downloaded across IEEE Xplore, June 2016
Advising & invited talks
(Co-)advised six doctoral candidates and ten MSc students at Instituto Superior Técnico and INESC-ID, 2017 – 2023.