A Dream Fulfilled

My association with Rinaldo Castello goes back to 1993 when I was serving as the ISSCC Program Vice-Chair. Rinaldo was an active member of the ISSCC European Program Committee and part of my job was to meet with the overseas committees. In those days the Conference (indeed the industry at large) was starting to experience a renaissance of analog driven by telecommunications (especially wireless). This field had joined the Personal Computer as a key driver of semiconductor device, circuit and system ?technology as well as batteries and displays. CMOS had emerged as the technology of choice and sampled data circuits (one of Rinaldo?s specialties) were now well established. Rinaldo?s research at the University of Pavia was a part of that renaissance. Together with his colleagues, Maloberti, Montecchi, Malcovati, Svelto, Baschirotto, Dallago, Torelli and others, Pavia was beginning to establish a worldwide reputation. Rinaldo capitalized on the growing strength of the university and the needs of domestic semiconductor maker, ST Microelectronics, to forge a new model for university/industry collaboration. A jointly staffed research center, the Studio di Microelettronica, was opened on campus in 1998 with Rinaldo as Scientific Coordinator.