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Gabriel A. Rincon-Mora

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Gabriel Alfonso Rincón-Mora is a Venezuelan-American/Hispanic-American electrical engineer, scientist, professor, inventor, and author[1] who was elected Fellow of the American National Academy of Inventors (NAI) in 2017,[2] Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2011,[3] and Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) in 2009 for contributions to energy-harvesting and power-supply integrated circuits (ICs).

Dr. Rincón-Mora has been Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) since 2001, Visiting Professor at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan since 2011, Director of the TI Analog Fellowship Program in 2001–2015, Director of the Georgia Tech Analog Consortium in 2001–2004, Adjunct Professor at Georgia Tech in 1999–2001, and Analog and Power IC Designer and Design Team Leader at Texas Instruments in 1994–2003.

Biography

Rincón-Mora was born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1972, grew up in Maracay, and migrated to North Miami Beach in the United States when he was 11 years old. He graduated from North Miami Beach Senior High School in 1989, from Florida International University with a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Electrical Engineering in 1992, Georgia Tech with a Masters of Science (M.S.) degree in Electrical Engineering and a Minor in Mathematics in 1994, and Georgia Tech with a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1996 and a dissertation on "Current Efficient, Low Voltage, Low Dropout Regulators" (Advisor: Prof. Phil Allen).[4]

He was IC Designer and Design Team Leader at Texas Instruments in 1994–2003, adjunct professor at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech in 1999–2001, Director of the Georgia Tech Analog Consortium in 2001–2004, is professor at Georgia Tech since 2001, and visiting professor at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in Taiwan since 2011.

Professional work

He has written several books, chapters of others, and over 170 other publications. His work has generated 42 licensed patents. He has designed over 26 commercial power-chip designs and delivered over 150 keynotes/lectures/speeches worldwide.[5] as of November 2017, his publications had been cited over 9400 times.[6]

His work and research is on the design and development of silicon-based microsystems that draw and condition power from tiny batteries, fuel cells, and generators that harness ambient energy from motion, light, temperature, and radiation to supply mobile, portable, and self-sustaining devices such as wireless microsensors for biomedical, consumer, industrial, and military applications. He has worked on voltage references, low-dropout regulators, switching dc-dc converters, and energy-harvesting microsystems.[7]

In the eighties, power-supply components were discrete and interconnected on boards. It wasn't until the nineties that Prof. Rincón-Mora and others started integrating them, the circuits that control them, and the functional blocks they feed into one microchip. Power consumption was a problem, however, because tiny batteries deplete easily and mechanical fans (needed for cooling hot chips) occupy too much space. Noise was also a problem because, when integrated with noisy blocks, radio-frequency, biological, electromechanical, electrochemical, and other real-life signals lose integrity. Plus, with so many functions to feed that start and stop without notice, power-supply response time was also a challenge.

Prof. Rincón-Mora developed technology that addressed all these issues, enabling consumer products like laptops, cellular phones, and tablets to emerge and soar in the marketplace. 19 of his licensed patents, 2 of his books, and 9 of the commercial microchips he designed describe how linear regulators can suppress noise, reduce power, and accelerate response.

Another 6 of his licensed patents, another 2 of his books, and 17 other commercial microchips he designed describe how switching power supplies can regulate their outputs within millivolts of their targets and respond to load dumps within one switching cycle. The technology that another 15 of his licensed patents and another one of his books (on voltage references) describe was also integrated into these and other products that were sold worldwide.

His work on power supplies: 5 books, 2 book chapters, 41 licensed patents, 26 commercial microchips and their derivatives, and 118 scientific articles, won him notoriety. He was invited to deliver plenary speeches and professional short courses for companies like RF Micro-Devices in Greensboro; Hong Kong Science and Technology Park in China; ON Semiconductor in Slovakia, France, and Arizona; Cypress Semiconductor in Colorado Springs; Toko in Japan; Intel in Hillsboro; Spyro Technology in Singapore; Integrated Device Technology in Duluth; Dialog Semiconductor in England and California; National Semiconductor in California; Linear Technology in California, Samsung in Korea, Silicon Works in Korea, Texas Instruments in Texas, MediaTek in Singapore, Semiconductor Research Corporation in Texas, and Analog Devices in California and Arizona. He was also invited to deliver keynote speeches at the Analog Leaders Forum in Korea, Semiconductor Equipment and Material International Conference in Korea, CMOS Emerging Technologies in Poland, Robins Air Force Base (twice), International System-on-Chip Design Conference in Korea (twice), Circuits and Systems for Medical and Environmental Applications in Mexico, International Conference on Microelectronics in Qatar, and International Conference on Design & Test of Integrated Micro & Nano-Systems in Tunisia.

After solving many of these problems, Prof. Rincón-Mora started looking into wireless microsensors for homes, hospitals, office buildings, cars, and others. Here, the battery is too small, so functionality doesn't last long. And when deployed by the thousands, recharging or replacing the battery isn't an option. Prof. Rincón-Mora was one of the first to research and develop microchips that can harvest ambient power. The challenge with these devices is that miniaturized transducers draw very little power.

Prof. Rincón-Mora developed technology that not only requires very little power to operate but also induces the transducer to draw more power. He developed, designed, and built microchips that derive power from light, motion (piezoelectrically and electrostatically), and heat. He also developed technology that transfers power wirelessly. 3 of his book chapters, 71 of his scientific articles, and one of his licensed patents describe how to draw and deliver power with the least losses, invest energy so the transducer can draw more ambient power, and keep the system at the maximum power point.

Awards

Texas Instruments awarded him a Three-Year Patent Award for U.S. 5,491,437, U.S. 5,500,625, and U.S. 5,519,341 in 1999; Hispanic Business Magazine voted him one of "The 100 Most Influential Hispanics" in 2000;[8] the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) awarded him the National Hispanic in Technology Award in 2000;[9][10] Florida International University (FIU) awarded him the Charles E. Perry Visionary Award in 2000;[11] the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) inducted him into its Council of Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni in 2000;[12] former Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante of California presented him a State of California Commendation Certificate in 2001; Robins Air Force Base presented him the Orgullo Hispano Award in 2003 and the Hispanic Heritage Award in 2005; IEEE presented him the IEEE Service Award in 2007; and IEEE Circuits and Systems Society[13] (CASS) named him IEEE Distinguished Lecturer in 2009-2010 and 2018–2019.

Symposium and conference tutorials

His work on energy harvesting gained so much attention that he was invited to deliver research tutorials at

  • International Symposium on Circuits and Systems in Arizona, France, China, and Portugal
  • Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems in Oklahoma, Texas, and Canada
  • International Microwave Symposium in California
  • International Workshop on 3S-SOP, SIP, SOC Electronic Technologies in Georgia
  • European Conference on Circuit Theory and Design in Spain; Power Electronics Specialists Conference in Canada
  • Annual International Conference on Small Fuel Cells in Georgia
  • International NEWCAS Conference in Canada (three times) and France
  • CMOS Emerging Technologies Workshop in Canada (twice)
  • International Workshop on Power Supply On Chip in Ireland
  • Materials Research Society Fall Meeting in Massachusetts
  • International Conference on Microelectronics in Egypt
  • Very Large-Scale Integration Design, Automation and Test in Taiwan (twice)
  • European Solid-State Circuits Conference in Finland; Faible Tension Faible Consommation in France (twice)
  • Seminario de Nanoelectrónica y Diseño Avanzado in Mexico
  • Asia Pacific Conference on Circuits and Systems in Taiwan and Korea
  • International Symposium on Industrial Electronics in Taiwan, Brazil, and Scotland
  • PowerMEMS in England; International Forum on Green Energy Electronics in Taiwan (twice)
  • Custom Integrated Circuits Conference in California
  • International Symposium on Integrated Circuits in Singapore
  • International Symposium on Quality Electronic Design in California
  • International System-on-Chip Conference in China
  • International Conference on Electronics Circuits and Systems in Monaco
  • International Conference on Industrial Technology in Canada
  • Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design in Taiwan
  • International Conference on Consumer Electronics in Korea.

He was elected Distinguished Lecturer by IEEE for four years, delivering Distinguished Lectures in Canada, Puerto Rico (twice), Taiwan, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile (twice), Greece, California, Peru, and Korea (twice).

He also delivered plenary speeches at

  • Army Research Lab, University of Puerto Rico (three times)
  • Texas A&M University (four times)
  • Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya
  • National Science Foundation and Intelligence Community
  • Shanghai Jiao Tong University
  • Inha University
  • University of Seoul
  • Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
  • Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
  • National Taiwan University
  • National Cheng Kung University (twelve times)
  • National Sun Yat-Sen University
  • National Taiwan University of Science and Technology
  • Department of Energy (twice)
  • Nanyang Technological University
  • Khalifa University
  • KTH Royal Institute of Technology
  • University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

Publications

Current Efficient, Low Voltage, Low Dropout Regulators. Georgia Institute of Technology, 1996 (Ph.D. dissertation, advisor Prof. Phil Allen).[14]

Voltage References. New Jersey: IEEE Press and John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (192 pages), 2001 [Translated into Chinese].[15]

Analog IC Design with Low-Dropout Regulators. New York: McGraw-Hill (400 pages), Jan. 2009 [Translated into Chinese].[16]

Analog IC Design with Low-Dropout Regulators, Second Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill (507 pages), 2014.[17]

References

  1. ^ G. Martinez Stepe, "Gabriel Rincón Mora – Un ingeniero polifacético: Inventor, profesor, escritor y actor" - "Gabriel Rincón Mora – Outstanding Engineer and Writer," Nuevo Impacto, vol. 4, no. 37, Nov. 2004.
  2. ^ NAI Fellows Directory.
  3. ^ IEEE Fellows Directory.
  4. ^ Current Efficient, Low Voltage, Low Dropout Regulators. Georgia Institute of Technology, 1996 (Advisor: Prof. Phil Allen).
  5. ^ Curriculum Vita.
  6. ^ Google Scholar Citations.
  7. ^ R. Robinson, "Analog: The indispensable technology," Research Horizons, vol. 25, no. 1, Fall 2007.
  8. ^ Hispanic Business Magazine, vol. 22, no. 10, Oct. 2000.
  9. ^ "Bravo – National Award Winners," Official Magazine of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Spring 2000.
  10. ^ The Free Library, Jan. 25, 2000.
  11. ^ FIU, Nov. 2000.
  12. ^ Georgia Tech College of Engineering, Jan. 2000.
  13. ^ IEEE CASS.
  14. ^ Current Efficient, Low Voltage, Low Dropout Regulators. Georgia Institute of Technology, 1996 (Advisor: Prof. Phil Allen).
  15. ^ Voltage References. New Jersey: IEEE Press and John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (192 pages), 2001.
  16. ^ Analog IC Design with Low-Dropout Regulators. New York: McGraw-Hill (400 pages), Jan. 2009.
  17. ^ Analog IC Design with Low-Dropout Regulators, Second Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill (507 pages), 2014.
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