The Impact of Dennard's Scaling Theory - IEEE

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tronics and combining international
contract research by top players
in the field with doctoral level
research, teaching and publications.
According to Cor Claeys, a
current Research Head at IMEC, it
was formed from a small research
group of about 20 people at the
University of Leuven. By the
beginning of this decade IMEC had
became the largest such group in
Europe with 125 professional
researchers. Dave Hodges who
knew and worked with him during
De Man’s time as a post-doc at
U.C. Berkeley, 1970-71, says that
De Man and others “built IMEC
into the pre-eminent microelectronics
research center in Europe.
It was always clear that he is a man
with many talents. He and his students
have contributed much to
the progress of microelectronics.”
De Man explains, “IMEC helped
in creating a great mixed industryuniversity
team to build a successful
research program on DSP silicon
compilation, the results of
which are still in use today. And
most of the team members have
either created their own spin-off
companies, are captains of industry
or top level academics. So the
greatest challenge became also the
greatest fun as there is no satisfaction
without overcoming some
challenge first.”
Willy Sansen, Head of ESAT-
MICAS at K.U. Leuven, reports that
De Man’s “task has been to look
around and provide advice to the
policymakers of IMEC. He does
this exceedingly well!”
De Man Looks Back
“I was extremely lucky to meet
two extra-ordinary visionary mentors
who both became friends for
life: Roger Van Overstraeten and
Don Pederson. The first opened
the world of physics and technology
for me, the second introduced
me to the passion of circuit and
system design and so many other
good things in life.
Common to both was the vision
that you never walk alone but that
great things only happen when
you stimulate the best people to
join forces and have fun in doing
so. For that reason receiving the
Don Pederson award is so dear to
me as I owe a lot to him, as does
everyone who had the privilege to
work with him.
Another factor of luck is that I
belong to a generation that could
participate in the 60-year evolution
from the single transistor circuit to
the billion-transistor chip. Perhaps
one of the most fascinating periods
in engineering history, although
you never know.”
Inspired Educator
De Man’s lectures were by far the
most inspiring of Rabaey’s undergraduate
career. “In fact, they
inspired me so much that I ultimately
changed my personal direction
from control systems to integrated
circuits,” Rabaey said. Gielen
also feels that De Man’s inspiring
lectures and presentations are
his most memorable trait. Claeys
points out that even now as an
emeritus professor, “his presentations
are not at all a review of the
history but more a look into the
future. He is exploring new fields
and tries to understand the physics
involved, their challenges and
potentials their may bring in the
future.”
Raebey recalls De Man was
known to be a fair but hard-driving
advisor. His undergraduate lab
mates made a movie for a Christmas
party of De Man’s students
slaving on the terminals in the
computer room, spewing tons of
computer paper from the printer,
all this playing against the music of
Ike and Tina Turner’s “Proud
Mary” with the lyrics “Working for
De Man every night and day.”
Gielen recalls, “the large size of
the reading material for his courses.
Hugo was infamous for that.
He could motivate his students to
work themselves through the big
piles of difficult material that he
was teaching.”
Claeys notes, “He initiated the
so-called ‘student projects’ whereby
a group of 3 or 4 students had
to work during the year on a dedicated
project. In the 70s it was a
new teaching concept which later
became common practice.”
Gielen recalls that De Man introduced
many “design projects in
our EE curriculum, where students
could gain hands-on experiences
with the course material. This
includes also many projects with
applying CAD software to VLSI
design.”
Claeys can still remember how
an exam question of De Man’s 35
years ago required undergraduates
to examine the whole picture
before designing a circuit solution.
“I want to build a radio for my car
and I have to drive through the
Sahara, What type of technology
should I use? You first had to analyze
the question: the desert
means a hot temperature, technology
must reliable, before an
answer could be given.”
Claeys pointed out that De Man
was available for the students
when needed. “The assistants
working for him and supervising
laboratories also had to treat the
students as a very valuable asset.”
Claeys sums it up, “All his life he
remained an enthusiastic professor
who considered teaching as a very
important job; I would more say a
mission in his life. Working together
with students was an extremely
important issue for him.”
“It is ironic, though, that De
Man, despite being an inspired
educator, never wrote a textbook
himself about digital design. Some
of his former students, like Jan
Rabaey, have done so instead,”
notes Gielen.
De Man comments that a most
satisfying part of his career has
been seeing his Master and Ph.D.
students contribute to progress in
the field worldwide, both in the
academic world and in industry.
“For me, teaching is the most
54 IEEE SSCS NEWSLETTER Winter 2007