Return To Team Leaders

Paul E. Hasler

Programmable Analog Signal Processing

In the fields of programmable analog signal processing and the integration of analog and digital technology into real-world applications, Professor Paul Hasler has established a reputation as one of the world's leading experts.

He and his Georgia Tech team are exploring ways to exploit certain "non-ideal" aspects of analog circuits to impart special features or capabilities to mixed-signal or system-on-a-chip devices. This work often dovetails with the research underway in Professor David Anderson's lab on low-power programmable analog systems for a variety of signal-processing functions.

Among the most significant advances developed in Hasler's lab are "floating-gate" analog circuits that add the crucial features of programmability and memory, thereby enabling analog circuits to be used for computational purposes. The technology fundamentally changes the relationship between power and computational efficiency, enabling designers of portable wireless devices to provide enhanced features while dramatically reducing overall power consumption. In effect, the technology provides analog with one of digital's best features: scalability. Thus, as digital technologies evolve and migrate to smaller geometries, the analog side can keep pace.

A startup company, GTronix, was formed in 2002 to commercialize the patented analog semiconductor technology and has received an impressive amount of first-round funding from a Silicon Valley venture capital firm.

Hasler's research activities span the fields of conventional electronics, neurobiology and on-chip learning and include technology integration, device physics, floating-gate MOS transistors in "smart'' interfaces for MEMS sensors, analog VLSI models of on-chip learning and sensory processing in neurobiology.

At Georgia Tech, Hasler is an associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the Georgia Tech Analog Consortium. He is also chair of the EDA technical interest group for 2004-5 and is a member of the Microsystems and Bioengineering Groups. He also founded the Integrated Computational Electronics Laboratory at Georgia Tech.

In 2004, Hasler wrote articles published in eight journals, and he gave 28 presentations at scientific conferences. He also received two patents.

An alumnus of Arizona State University, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering, Hasler also attended the California Institute of Technology, where he completed his PhD in computation and neural systems. At Caltech, his advisor was Carver Mead, who made many pioneering contributions to solid state electronics and VLSI design technology Ð and founded several Silicon Valley start-up companies.

Phone: 404-894-2984
Fax: 404-894-4641
E-mail: paul.hasler@ece.gatech.edu
More information: http://faculty.ece.gatech.edu/paul.hasler