Ahmad Bahai - EEWeb

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<strong>EEWeb</strong> PULSE as having potential now given the progress in semiconductors and signal processing electronics. We spent time developing the idea a little more despite the fact that everyone was saying that the technology was still too complex and needed another 10 to 15 years before it could be developed. That kind of skepticism got us even more excited—the idea that people think it’s too difficult or too futuristic— so we took it as a challenge to develop it to the point where we were able to write a book about it. Subsequently, many wireless and high-speed communication systems and standards were based on this technology. Looking ahead and particularly beyond what’s available today really gets me excited. This is a big reason why I spend part of my 6 time at universities, which enables me to think outside of the box. I’m a strong believer that you need to get outside of the box to know what the box is. What’s your role at TI? Texas Instruments is the largest analog semiconductor company in the world and continues to grow. My focus today is to identify and develop disruptive innovations that can further grow the company. As I look at TI’s product portfolio of almost 45,000 analog products, I see a challenge – to leverage this expansive portfolio by bringing products together and then stepping back to solve problems more efficiently with the right combination of these products— <strong>EEWeb</strong> | Electrical Engineering Community ranging from basic semiconductor and packaging technologies to circuits and systems. It’s a big job but I am excited. What do you foresee as some of the biggest challenges to the electrical engineering industry? A key challenge we are going to be facing as an electronics community is that we have been so successful over the past few decades in improving the quality, cost and effectiveness of electronic components, to the point where hardware is becoming a commodity. The capabilities of a smart phone today, which is significantly higher than a laptop three years ago, took a lot of innovation in process technology and circuit design. I
As I look at TI’s product portfolio of almost 45,000 analog products, I see a challenge – to leverage this expansive portfolio by bringing products together and then stepping back to solve problems more efficiently with the right combination of these products— ranging from basic semiconductor and packaging technologies to circuits and systems. think we will lose some of our top talents to non-hardware or nonelectronics parts of the hardware, which may tax us in the long run. I fear that a lot of students will move into applications design rather than driving innovation in hardware. We need to remind everyone that all of the social media applications that we use today for example require extremely capable and powerefficient semiconductor hardware to provide, which is a result of decades of innovation. Another challenge I see is ensuring multidisciplinary education for electrical engineering students. Many innovations today are a convergence of several types of technologies. The innovator today needs to be able to leverage the capabilities of all of these technologies together to really open the door for new opportunities. Do you have any advice for the electrical engineering community to help the development of these new innovations? I think it is very important to develop new ways to shorten the cycle of innovation. Particularly, reducing the amount of time between coming up with a great idea and the commercialization of that idea. At Silicon Valley Labs, we work extensively in analog and mixedsignal processing to discover the next big thing. The challenge is to make the development process more efficient. Over the last few years, we discovered through practice a collaborative way of innovating. Collaboration can really Visit www.eeweb.com INTERVIEW help bring ideas from their infancy to the point of realistic evaluation. Today, we work with people at the top schools on projects, not in the classic way of funding a project and reporting back every six months, but getting heavily involved and spending time with the team and bouncing ideas off of each other. This interaction really helps take ideas from the whiteboard to the development of hardware in an amazingly short period of time. It’s very competitive out there and having these innovations can give us a six-month window over our competition. We extend that window with more innovation. Back in the old days the best way to protect your innovation was to patent it. Nowadays, the best way to protect your innovation is with more innovation. ■ 7
Page 1 and 2: EEWeb PULSE INTERVIEW Ahmad Bahai E
Page 3 and 4: EEWeb PULSE TABLE OF CONTENTS Ahmad
Page 5: How did you get into electrical eng
Page 9 and 10: FEATURED PRODUCTS Inudstrial, Octal
Page 11 and 12: For course descriptions, visit Rene
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Page 15 and 16: Below: Arduino Board TECH ARTICLE M
Page 17 and 18: entirely a bad thing and will motiv
Page 19 and 20: BeStar® ACOUSTICS & SENSORS PRODUC
Page 21 and 22: ial ature Flash ducts TECH ARTICLE
Page 23 and 24: Storage Temp (ºC) 125 85 70 55 25
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Ahmad Bahai - EEWeb

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