Crossing the Boundaries between Analogue and Digital

Abstract

Given that they do not benefit from CMOS technology scaling, analogue integrated circuits are soon becoming a constraint in terms of the cost and performance of nanoscale integrated systems. This has led to some debate about whether analogue circuits are still useful in the era of digital technology. The usual reaction is that analogue circuitry will always be needed, if not everywhere, then at least in interface circuits that exchange data with physically analogue environments. The fact that matter is made up of discrete atoms and molecules, that basic physical quantities like electromagnetic radiation and electric charge are quantized, and even that information is transmitted as discrete pulses in biological systems all make the physical world less "intrinsically analog" than it first appears. In other words, it appears more and more plausible that the foundation for our regular analogue experiences is a distinct or digital one.