MARENCO Andrea

Abstract: The PhD candidate will focus on the study of existing approximate circuit techniques and on the exploration of new solutions based on emerging technologies. More in detail, resistive memories are one of the target technology for this exploration, since their probabilistic behaviour is promising for the design of approximate circuits. In the first phase, the PhD candidate will review the state of the art with the objective of choosing a target technology for designing probabilistic approximate circuits. In this phase, the PhD candidate will also have the possibility to test existing fabricated circuits in order to retrieve some characterization results and model the probabilistic behaviour. In the second phase, the PhD candidate will implement new solutions for approximate circuits relying on this model and using industrial EDA tools for full-custom circuit design. A chip will be fabricated in order to experimentally prove the outcome of the work. Finally, the proposed approximate circuit solutions will be integrated inside a target cryptographic application. The PhD candidate is expected to publish in prestigious conferences and scientific journals. Certain results may also be patented.