RESEARCH INTERESTS
§ Integrated analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters
§ Integrated circuit design for biomedical applications
§ Low-voltage low-power analog and mixed-signal integrated circuit design
§ RF-IC design for wireless transceivers
EDUCATION
Ph.D. (Electrical Engineering)
University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran, 1999-2004
Thesis title: Low-power design of high-speed high-resolution analog-to-digital converters
Advisor: Professor Omid Shoaei
The thesis was recognized by the PhD exam committee with an “Excellent” grade
on Sept.20th, 2004.
M.Sc. (Electrical Engineering)
Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, 1997-1999
Thesis title: Design of low-voltage low-power high-dynamic-range switched-capacitor filter
Advisor: Dr. S. Mojtaba Atarodi
B.Sc. (Electrical Engineering)
Sharif Univ. of Technology (1993-1995) and Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran, (1995-1997)
Graduated with GPA 18.01/20.00
Final Project Title: Design and implementation of a calibration system for temperature sensors
Advisor: Dr. Mohammad Maymandi-Nejad
HONORS
§ Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (FUM) Distinguished Teacher Award, 2009
§ Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (FUM) Best High-Tech. Project Award, 2008
§ Chosen as the best teacher by Electrical Engineering students, Ferdowsi Univ. of Mashhad, 2008.
§ “Honorable Mention” award in Young Kharazmi Festival, Tehran, Iran, 2004:
o Taherzadeh-Sani, R. Lotfi, “Design of high-speed high-resolution ADCs”.
§ Ranked 1st in Ferdowsi Univ. of Mashhad, Faculty of Engineering upon graduation, 1997.
§ Ranked 1st in PhD Entrance Exam in Electronics Engineering, University of Tehran, 1999.
§ Ranked 1st in PhD Entrance Exam in Electronics Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, 1999.
ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE
§ Postdoctoral scientific researcher, Delft Univ. of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands (2008-2009)
o Design and implementation of ultra-low-power analog-to-digital converters for biomedical implantable devices
§ Design and implementation of a 6-10 bit 1-200 kS/s SAR ADC
o Lecturing a graduate course
§ Design of Nyquist-rate data converters
§ Assistant Professor in Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran (Sept. 2004-now)
o Teaching Graduate Courses
§ Design of CMOS Analog Integrated Circuits
§ Design of Integrated Data Converters
§ Advanced analog IC design
o Teaching Under-Graduate Courses
§ Electric Circuits-I
§ Principles of Electronics-I
§ Principles of Electronics-II
§ Principles of Electronics-III
§ Practical Electronics
§ Physics of Semiconductor Devices
§ VLSI Circuits
o Supervising PhD Dissertations:
§ Low-Voltage High-Efficiency Analog Power Techniques
§ Ultra-Low-Power A/D Converters for Biomedical Applications
§ Design of Analog Integrated Circuits in Nano-Scale CMOS
§ Design for Reliability of Nano-Scale Digital Integrated Circuits
o Supervising M.Sc. theses:
§ Design of biomedical sensor interface circuits
§ Design of clock-less (asynchronous) A/D converters
§ Low-power design of algorithmic A/D converters
§ Low-power design of integrating A/D converters
§ Mismatch/nonlinearity-insensitive pipelined A/D converters
§ Ultra-low-power design of digital integrated circuits
§ High-speed low-voltage D/A converters
§ Background calibration of high-resolution A/D converters
§ Design of MOSFET-only A/D converters
§ Design of low-voltage high-resolution switched-opamp pipelined A/D converters
§ Design of wide-band continuous-time Sigma-Delta modulators
§ Low-power design of very-low-voltage high-speed high-resolution A/D converters
§ Optimization of low-voltage high-speed high-dynamic-range Gm-C filters for wireless applications
§ Design of low-voltage switched-opamp filters for wireless applications
§ Design of high-performance DC-DC converters
o Supervising BSc projects:
§ Systematic design for optimization of pipelined A/D converters
§ Developing CAD tools for high-performance analog integrated circuits
§ Design of MOSFET-only switched-capacitor and switched-opamp filters
§ Design of high-performance ultra-low-voltage comparators
§ Design of high-performance LDOs
§ Design and implementation of a C-V analyzer
§ Design and implementation of a simple RF-ID system
§ Design and implementation of road markers using solar cells
o Advisor of FUM IEEE Student Branch (2009-now)
o Head of Electronics-Engineering Group (Sept.2004-Sept. 2006)
o Founder and Director of Integrated Systems Lab. (Jan 2005-Jan 2008)
o Technical reviewer of:
§ IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems-I
§ IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems-II
§ Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing, (Springer)
§ Integration, the VLSI Journal, (Elsevier)
§ IEEE Intl. Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS)
§ IEEE Intl. Conference on Electronics, Circuits and Systems (ICECS)
§ IEEE Intl. Conference on VLSI Design
§ Iranian Conference on Electrical Engineering (ICEE)
o IEEE member since 2005, Student member since 1997
§ Societies : SSC, CAS, and EMB
INDUSTRIAL EXPERIENCE
§ Niktek Co., Tehran, Iran : Feb. 2004- Feb. 2007
Principal IC designer and project manager
o Project manager and senior designer: “Design and implementation of a low-voltage low-power very-high-speed high-SNR pipelined A/D converter” (the chip has been fabricated and successfully tested with acceptable specs)
o Presenting two hands-on training courses on “Low-power pipeline ADC design” and “Design of voltage and current reference circuits” for MiMOS, KL, Malaysia
§ EMAD Semicon. Co., Tehran, Iran: May 1998- May 2003.
Senior Designer
o Design of integrated circuits for wireless transceivers
§ Channel selection switched-capacitor low-voltage filters for pager receivers
§ Limiting amplifiers for pager receivers
o Design of low-power high-speed analog-to-digital converters
§ Supervising an industrial project on “Online measurement of fuel volume in fuel tanks in gas stations” 2006-2007
§ Other experiences
o Member of the technical committee of 13th and 14th Iranian conference on electrical engineering, ICEE’05 and ICEE’06.
o Member of the executive committee of 1st workshop on photonic crystals, Mashhad, Iran, 2005.
o Member of the executive and technical committees of 12th Iranian conference on electrical engineering, ICEE’04, Mashhad, Iran.
o Member of the executive committee of 1st Iranian student conference on electrical engineering, ISCEE’98, Tehran, Iran.
PATENTS
R. Lotfi, S. Rahmanpour, H. Heidarian, S. Ramezanian, “Measurement of fuel volume in fuel tanks” pending as Iranian Patent, 2007.
Reza Lotfi
Assistant Professor,
Electrical Engineering Department,
Ferdowsi University of Mashhad,
Mashhad, I. R. Iran
