Field Programmable Gate Array with Integrated Microstructures.ppt

Field Programmable Gate Array with Integrated Microstructures Jason F. Cantin and Fred R. Beyette Jr. Photonic Systems Development Laboratory University of Cincinnati 10/31/2000 Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) The equipment used to make integrated circuits can also be used to make other things Various types of sensors Tiny emitters and Lasers Mechanical devices (micro-machines) Even chemical devices! We need not restrict ourselves to electricity MEMS are very useful when combined with circuits For example, optoelectronics Enhance the performance of optics with integrated control Improve I/O bandwidth and latency between electronic systems Lots of stuff can be fabricated with logic on a silicon chip Optical detectors and temperature sensors made from reverse-biased diodes Optical emitters made from suspended polysilicon filaments (micro-heaters) Pressure sensors and strain-guages leveraged from parallel-plate capacitors …And many more Some Applications Highly-integrated data acquisition systems Light-weight and low-power Space exploration Image processing systems Single-chip cameras Components for Optical Memories Prosthesis Artificial retinas have been successfully demonstrated in human patients Problem Motivation We’d like to do research with multi-technology designs, but… Chips are hard to develop Expensive ($$$) Long lead time CAD tools are unavailable or too expensive Typically the experimental optics are placed on a separate chip Digital designs can be prototyped using Field Programmable Gate Arrays Uncommitted logic that is programmable A string of bits is loaded onto the chip to configure it Software defined hardware Dense enough to implement entire digital systems Processors, I/O controllers, etc. Designing with FPGAs Fast and cheap because the FPGA does the job of a custom chip Designs are specified in a high-level language, and a compiler generates low-level configuration data FPGAs are available in all shapes, sizes, and colors Simpl