Ionic–electronic transduction is at the base of biosensing. We start by addressing some basic principles emphasizing the common background between the electronic and ionic behavior on the base of some classical statistical mechanics concepts. Then, we focus on more specific examples of application in this framework. Of course, the covered examples are only a very small part of the subject and are intended as proof of application to consider the transduction process in the electronic design of biosensor interfaces.

Chapter 2 provides an in-depth and intuitive description of TCI, starting with its basic structure and fundamental operating principle. It explains how the transceiver and inductive coupling coils are designed, their electrical characteristics, and design variations. This is followed by an intuitive explanation of how to do design trade-offs to optimize for different performance requirements, with particular emphasis on design options for optimal power and area efficiency respectively. Integration options – 2/2.5/2.9/3D – are also presented to illustrate implementation flexibility. Two power delivery solutions are then introduced, one using wireless and the other advanced doping technologies. Next, three application examples are described, providing insight into how TCI can be adopted and adapted and quantifying performance improvement against conventional wideband DRAM, stacked flash memory, and network-on-chip solutions. Specific challenges in each of the application areas are elaborated and how TCI can be adapted to address these challenges is explained. The chapter concludes with two postscripts. The first introduces a sample of TCI research carried out in other institutions in parallel to our effort. The second provides an overview of collective synchronization, which is utilized to create a low-cost clock distribution solution for TCI.

Chapter 1 starts by tracing the history of the computer, integrated circuit (IC), and connector in the last 60 years. In particular, it describes how the goal of IC development evolved from high-performance IC to low-power IC and interface, and then to high energy efficiency. This provides the background to help the reader understand current and future challenges faced by the IC and connector in addressing the diverging performance needs of various emerging applications. This in turn sets the stage for the introduction of 3D IC integration, which is evolving from low-cost wirebond to high-performance and high-density TSV-based solutions to offer More than Moore performance improvement. The challenges faced by 3D integration are then enumerated, and 2.5D integration and wireless interface technologies are presented as current and future solutions respectively. A brief overview of wireless technologies is then provided, followed by an explanation of why near-field coupling has been applied to develop two wireless interface technologies – ThruChip Interface (TCI) and Transmission Line Coupler (TLC). The chapter concludes with an overview of TCI and TLC and an elaboration of how they address respectively the challenges in 3D IC integration and connector performance scaling.

Chapter 3 provides an in-depth introduction to TLC, starting with an intuitive explanation of its operating principle, followed by a description of its electrical characteristics and coupler and transceiver designs. It then drills down into design variations for four application areas. The first is the implementation of a multidrop bus, where three TLC derivatives for a master–slave, multidrop bus, single-ended-to-differential conversion, and a multimaster, multidrop bus respectively are presented. The second is smartphone application, where two small-footprint TLC derivatives including one for extended communication distance across the thickness of the smartphone are described, together with a high-EMC immunity transceiver for robust operation in the high-EMI environment of a smartphone. The third is adaptation for automotive LAN, where a TLC derivative compatible with the twisted pair wiring used by automotive LANs is introduced, together with a high-EMC immunity transceiver developed to meet the stringent EMI and EMS requirements demanded of automotive electronics. The fourth is the implementation of a completely wireless interface for SSD application. The system architecture is presented, together with a TLC interface nested within a wireless power interface. System-level challenges in startup and error correction and their solutions are also explained.

Chapter 4 introduces our vision of how to use TCI and TLC to enable More-than-Moore system performance leaps. It first explores how TCI can be employed to stack SRAM to offer better memory access performance than stacked DRAM for deep neural network (DNN) accelerators to enable system-level innovations and possible paradigm shifts. The idea of an electronic right brain is then introduced and its difference from an electronic left brain implemented with the conventional von Neumann computer explained. SRAM stacked on an FPGA using TCI is then proposed as an implementation of a DNN-based electronic right brain. It further describes how, by storing configuration information in the SRAM, the FPGA can be reconfigured in real time to enable virtualization of different DNNs over time and hence temporal scaling of the right-brain hardware. It then explains how this can be combined with an electronic left brain based on a von Neumann computer also enhanced by TCI to construct a complete electronic brain, and how it can be scaled both up and down to address different performance needs. The chapter concludes by exploring how such an electronic brain can support trends in the IC industry and the emerging digital society.

When most students first approachfeedback control, they are still coming to grips with its foundation inlinear system theory. This unsteadiness with thefoundationmakes understanding feedback dramatically moredifficult. Experienced professionals canhavesimilar problems, painfully compounded by the fog of imperfect memory of the linear system theorystudied years before. It is thusvery common for all types of students to sit down to study feedback, glimpse the breadth and depth of knowledge required as a prerequisite, and simply give up. The purpose of this chapter is to strengthen the reader in linear systemfundamentals. It will fill in the gaps for those who need gaps filled,deepen the understanding of thosefluent in the mechanics of solving problems but who were nevershown the overarching conceptual logic, and serve as a handy reference for those who are truly comfortable.