Through the Looking Glass—The 2022 Edition: Trends in solid-state circuits from ISSCC

The International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) is the flagship conference of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society. The theme for ISSCC 2022 is “Intelligent Silicon for a Sustainable World.” This theme further highlights the fact that to cope with strong environmental changes, the circuit design community is evolving more than ever to support a more sustainable world. Given their widespread use in our everyday lives, without change, ICs will become the dominant energy consumer and source of carbon emissions in the (near) future. Despite phenomenal advances in solid-state circuits and systems, low-power circuit design is becoming increasingly more sophisticated in all application areas, from digital computation and machine learning to analog design. In the context of data communications, advances in wireless and wireline circuits will help optimize local and global communications energy. Various sensors can be deployed to measure environmental data and optimize energy consumption. Power management techniques continue to be an essential aspect of a majority of circuits and systems to extend their lifetime and battery longevity. Furthermore, new technologies are providing opportunities to develop innovative circuits, reduce fabrication impacts, and improve recyclability.