Ian Galton

Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering

Data converters, frequency synthesizers, clock-recovery systems, digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to mitigate the effects of non-ideal analog circuit behavior in mixed-signal integrated circuits (ICs) implemented in CMOS (silicon chips).

Ian Galton manages the Integrated Signal Processing Group at UCSD. The group's research objective is to generate enabling technology for highly integrated, low-cost, communication systems. The research involves the invention, development, analysis, and CMOS integrated circuit implementation of key communication system blocks such as data converters, frequency synthesizers, and clock recovery systems. The emphasis of the research is on the development of digital signal processing techniques to mitigate the effects of non-ideal analog circuit behavior in mixed-signal (combined analog and digital) integrated circuits. The resulting circuits tend to blur the traditionally sharp analog-digital dividing lines in communication systems in order to reduce the precision requirements of the analog circuitry. Current research topics include: Mismatch-shaping DACs for high-performance delta-sigma data converters Segmented dynamic element matching for Nyquist-rate, high-resolution DACs DAC noise cancellation and interstage gain error compensation techniques in pipelined ADCs Digital correction of analog non-linearity in pipelined ADCs Fractional-N phase-locked loop frequency synthesis Injection locking techniques for phase noise reduction in frequency synthesizers For additional information, see publication list ( http://ispg.ucsd.edu/publications.php).

Capsule Bio:
Ian Galton received the Sc.B. degree from Brown University in 1984, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the California Institute of Technology in 1989 and 1992, respectively, all in electrical engineering. Since 1996 he has been a professor of electrical engineering at the University of California, San Diego where he teaches and conducts research in the field of mixed-signal integrated circuits and systems for communications. Prior to 1996 he was with UC Irvine, and prior to 1989 he was with Acuson and Mead Data Central. His research involves the invention, analysis, and integrated circuit implementation of critical communication system blocks such as data converters, frequency synthesizers, and clock recovery systems. In addition to his academic research, he regularly consults at several semiconductor companies and teaches industry-oriented short courses on the design of mixed-signal integrated circuits. He has served on a corporate Board of Directors, on several corporate Technical Advisory Boards, as the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Analog and Digital Signal Processing, as a member of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society Administrative Committee, as a member of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Board of Governors, as a member of the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference Technical Program Committee, and as a member of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society Distinguished Lecturer Program.

Institute Affiliation:
Co-Director,
Center for Wireless Communications »