The Laboratory is aimed at the conception, design, realization and testing of integrated circuits for diverse applications, such as: mm-wave wireless transceivers for short-range multi Gbps communications; wired transceivers for copper backplanes and fiber-optics for data-rates above 20Gbps; ultrasound imaging systems for healthcare and medical diagnostic.
A strong partnership with industry is established in order to train talented students around key problems. The target is transferring new technologies to industry and at the same time gain access to state-of-the-art technologies and instrumentation.
Our group offers a dynamic and multicultural environment, fostering the development of individual abilities and guiding the students through the exciting world of the academic research. Many scientific publications are produced each year, all of them published on international high level journals and conferencies.

For more information, please visit the lab's website: www.unipv.it/aic

The semi-automatic probestation for on-wafer measurement

A mm-wave microchip is measured on the manual probestation

Measurements of a packaged mm-wave voltage-controlled oscillator

Review of the layout of an integrated voltage-controlled oscillator

Architectural review of a 10Gbps mm-wave wireless receiver

Photograph of the microchip integrating a 60GHz voltage-controlled oscillator

International Solid State Circuits Conference of San Francisco

The research activity of the Electronic Instrumentation Laboratory is mainly focused on the design and characterization of application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for the readout of radiation detectors.
The group at the Electronic Instrumentation Lab has been working in the past both with commercial (CMOS) and non standard microelectronic technologies (JFET, mixed JFET-CMOS and JFET-CMOS-bipolar, silicon-on-insulator Bi-CMOS processes) and has recognised experience in the design of analog and mixed-signal circuits with deep sub-micron (planar and three-dimensional) CMOS technologies, including monolithic pixel sensors.
The design activity of the Laboratory is particularly concerned with applications to silicon tracking detectors for high energy physics experiments (like those currently in progress at the CERN Large Hadron Collider) and to X-ray imaging at the X-ray free electron lasers (FEL). The group has also a long-standing experience in the characterization of microelectronic technologies from the standpoint of noise and radiation tolerance. Other activities include the design of electronics for scientific, industrial and medical instrumentiation The laboratory is fully equipped for the design, the simulation and the layout of integrated circuits (linux workstations, Cadence design environment and the main CAD software packages), and the physical simulation of semiconductor detectors (Synopsys Sentaurus), the description and synthesis of digital circuits on FPGAs, the experimental characterization of electronic devices and circuits (spectrum analyzers, oscilloscopes, rbitrary function generators, digital pattern generators, logic analyzers, semiconductor parameter analyzers, impedance meters, mostly used on the current research activity) and the design and fabrication of printed circuit boards for circuit and device testing.

For more information, please visit the lab's website: eil.unipv.it/eil

Physical simulation of a monolithic sensor in a three-dimensional domain

Microphotograph of one lateral face of a vertically integrated chip

Layout of a test structure with monolithic sensors

Setup for sensor testing with an infra-red laser source

Layout of a monolithic sensor matrix, with the detail of the elementary cell

Sensor readout circuit under test

Setup for noise measurements

Setup for digital circuit testing

The Integrated Microsystems Lab (IMS) research activities are focused on the design, development, and experimental characterization of integrated circuits in deep submicron CMOS technologies. The Lab is involved in the design of analog, digital, and mixed signal circuits and, in particular, on the development of A/D and D/A converters, DC-DC converters, and sensors for applications in automotive, telecommunications and aerospace. The research group is also active in the frame of solid-state non-volatile memories with particular regards on multilevel flash and, more recently, phase-change memories. The Lab research activities are in strict cooperation with leading international IC manufacturing companies such as STMicroelectronics, Micron, Texas Instruments, AMS and research centers and Universities as EPFL, CEA-LETI, ETH.

For more information, please visit the lab's website: ims.unipv.it

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For more information, please visit the lab's website: sites.google.com/site/dbajoni/research

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For more information, please visit the lab's website: www.unipv.it/lsl

The Microelectronics Laboratory is dedicated to the design and characterization of a broad range of integrated circuits (IC), with main focus on Analog / Digital interfaces, including wireless. Within this broad area several specific topics are investigated in the framework of nationally and internationally funded research programs. Our designs are integrated in the most advanced silicon nanometer technologies (currently at the 28nm node). Cooperation with private industries has always been very tight and has resulted in many new ideas and technologies being transferred into real products. The main industrial partner sponsoring the lab is Marvell Semiconductor, that has also a group of about 100 MSc and PhDs engineers located in a design center in Pavia. We also actively cooperate with other research and academic institutions in Europe and in the US.

For more information, please visit the lab's website: www.unipv.it/microlab/lsl

Wireless integrated systems research: LTE and beyond

Research activities: turning an original idea into concrete results

Low energy wireless is at the forefront of microelectronics research

Making the internet really ubiquitous will require creative solutions!

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For more information, please visit the lab's website: microwave.unipv.it

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For more information, please visit the lab's website: www.unipv.it/eqn

In the laboratory of opto-electronics research is carried out in the framework of National and European programs funded by public institutions, as well as by private companies and organizations, on topics such as:

Chaos in semiconductor lasers - Optical Encryption - Dynamics of semiconductor lasers and laser ring - Noise in detectors and optical amplifiers - Technology of passive optical devices - MEMS and MOEMS: Micro- (Opto) Electro-Mechanical Systems - Photonic Crystals - Transmission by diffuse radiation - Fiber optic sensors – Optical Gyroscopes - Laser interferometry - Low-coherence Interferomery - Laser vibrometry - Single-photon detectors - Microwave Photonics - Silicon Photonics – Optofluidic Microsystems, Optical Biosensors.

These researches are carried out in cooperation with Italian Universities (including Pisa, Padua and L’Aquila, and the Polytechnics of Turin and Milan), foreign Universities (including Glasgow, Athens and Bangor), research institutions (including the Fraunhofer Institute in Berlin and the Mario Negri Institute in Milan) as well as National and European companies (such as ST-Microelectronics, Phoenix, Eblana).

For more information, please visit the lab's website: www.unipv.it/optoele

Laboratory activities I

Laboratory activities II

Laboratory activities III

Micro-interferometer for M(O)EMS characterization

Interferometrical characterization of M(O)EMS

Micromachined Venetian Blind for laser beam steering

Chaotic Laser for cryptography I

Chaotic Laser for cryptography II

Chaotic Laser for cryptography III

Optical setup for experiments on chaotic cryptography

People at work I

People at work II

Reconstruction of cell distribution in 3D silicon microstructures

Optical detection of cells grown in silicon three-dimensional devices

Optical readout of biosensors based on silicon microfluidic devices

Laser and micromirrors module in a laser reflective pico-projector

Video: scanning of a He-Ne laser beam (red light) by means of a silicon micromirror

Video: comparison of red and infrared light, as observed with the photocamera of a cellular phone

Video: illustration of the operation of a resonant micromirror

Video: Message cryptography by optical chaos

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For more information, please visit the lab's website: www.unipv.it/eqn

The Sensors and Microsystems (SMS) Laboratory is active and well known worldwide since several years in the design of sensor systems, analog, and mixed analog/digital integrated circuits. The most relevant research areas covered include high performance A/D and D/A converters, interface circuits for smart sensors, and power management systems.
In particular, researchers working in the SMS Laboratory have been among the first in Europe to deal with integrated microsystems, including microsensors and interface circuits, completely realized with CMOS and BiCMOS integrated circuit compatible technologies and carried on with success over the years this research topic. The SMS laboratory is fully equipped for the design, the simulation, and the layout of integrated circuits (all the main CAD software packages are available) and the experimental characterization of sensors and integrated circuits (spectrum analyzers, oscilloscopes, arbitrary function generators, digital pattern generators, logic analyzers, semiconductor parameter analyzers).

For more information, please visit the lab's website: sms.unipv.it

32x32-pixel X-ray sensor bonded on top of the integrated interface circuit

Integrated photovoltaic microsystem

Wireless fall detection system

Integrated smart label for food monitoring

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For more information, please visit the lab's website: tlclab.unipv.it