Incorporating Large-Scale FPAAs Into Analog Design and Test Courses

The development of large-scale field-programmable analog arrays (FPAAs) provides an excellent opportunity for expanding the capabilities of analog design courses and their laboratories. These devices allow the complete design and test cycle of an analog IC to be explored within the span of a single-term course without being limited to prefabricated integrated circuits. A brief discussion of the authors' experience in incorporating the reconfigurable analog signal processor (RASP) into courses and workshops is presented.

I. Reconfigurable Analog Devices in Education

The real world is analog and thus requires engineers with the knowledge and experience to design and test analog integrated circuits (ICs) and systems. Although most systems revolve around digital design practices, their interfaces with real world signals will always require analog expertise. As more electronics are designed for portable applications, the power saving benefits of analog circuits have been tightly integrated with the flexibility of programmable digital devices to form complex system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs to save both power and area. All of this has increased the demand for students who are better educated in analog or mixed-signal design and test.