PROJECT

This program agreement aims at enhancing the scientific knowledge existing at the Pavia University in the analog microelectronics area for sustaining and improving the scientific excellence and for creating suitable boundary conditions that favor innovation; stimulate new entrepreneurial initiatives and high-tech employment.
The foreseen activity, resulting from the joint action of the University of Pavia (UniPV) and the Institute of High University Studies of Pavia (IUSS), is motivated by three main objectives:

  1. Increasing the international visibility and the scientific reputation of the university environment;
  2. Sustaining and attracting industrial activities by generating enabling knowledge of new advanced products and by favoring start-ups; and
  3. Creating the basis for a permanent and financially autonomous reality that will guide and sustain the scientific and the technological innovation.

The research activity aims at generating advanced knowledge usable in the medium range in the following areas: silicon integrated circuits at ultra-high frequency, design of ultra-low power analog CMOS circuits, special materials for nanoelectronics devices and integrated CMOS Microsystems, devices and circuit for storing and harvesting energy. The resources of the project will also be used for enriching the existing instrumentations and equipments for on extensive experimental testing of the designed circuits and systems.
The projects will use state-of-the-art silicon technologies made available by industrial partners and services providers. The existing and future cooperation agreements with major semiconductor industries enable using front technologies including the ones now under development, but do not entail constraints for the research activity and for the scientific use of results.
An important role of the project is for disseminating technical information, training post-graduate and providing continuing educational, and interacting with the local productive environment for ensuring an academia-industry link that directs the medium-range strategies. The determined feedback favors a proper balance between research and technology transfer, thus maximizing the taxpayer return-of-investment. A tangible by-product of the project is the Inter-University Analog Microelectronics Research Center being established with the contributions of UniPV and IUSS. The center will become the junction between advanced microelectronic research and new or existing entrepreneurial initiatives.
With an economical balanced support between public funds, donations and industrial contracts, the center will continue pursuing the same objectives of this proposal after the three years of duration.
Two bodies monitor and guide the research activity: the Scientific Board (SB) and the International Advisory Board (IAB). The SB, headed by the project Coordinator and formed by the Unit's Coordinators, will meet every three months for monitoring and assessing the research activity and for the management of the project. The IAB, composed by three outstanding international researchers, will meet every year for assessing and monitoring the scientific activity.