ABOUT ISCAS 2018

The IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS) is the flagship conference of the IEEE
Circuits and Systems (CAS) Society and the world’s premier networking and exchange forum for researchers
in the highly active fields of theory, design and implementation of circuits and systems, that today benefit
more and more from miniaturization and integration. ISCAS2018 focuses on the Art of Circuits and Systems
to highlight the strong foundation in methodology and the integration of multidisciplinary approaches which
are the distinctive features of CAS contributions. The worldwide CAS community is exploiting such Art to
change the way in which devices and circuits are understood, optimized, and leveraged in a variety of systems
and applications.

The technical program has been tailored to reflect the wide spectrum of research interests and applications
shared by researchers in the field. The selected topics are of particular interest to the circuits &
systems community:
 Analog and Mixed Signal Circuits and Systems
 Digital Integrated Circuits and Systems
 Communications Circuits and Systems
 Power and Energy Circuits and Systems
 Beyond CMOS: Nanoelectronics and Hybrid Systems Integration
 Biomedical Circuits and Systems
 Sensory Circuits and Systems
 Neural Networks and Neuromorphic Engineering
 Nonlinear Systems and Circuit Theory
 Digital Signal Processing
 Visual Signal Processing and Communications
 Multimedia Systems and Applications
 Education in Circuits and Systems
ABOUT THE IEEE CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS SOCIETY

Mission
The official IEEE Field of Interest of the CAS Society is to study the theory, analysis, design, tools, and
implementation of circuits and systems. The field spans their theoretical foundations, applications, and
architectures, as well as circuits and systems implementation of algorithms for signal and information
processing.

Vision
The IEEE Circuits and Systems (CAS) Society believes that the Grand Engineering Challenges of the 21st
century can only be addressed in an interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary manner. The Society’s unique and
profound expertise in Circuits, Systems, Signals, Modeling, Analysis, and Design can have a decisive impact
on important issues such as Sustainable Energy, Bio-Health, Green Information Technology, Nano-Technology,
and Scalable Information Technology Systems.

For more information, please visit our website at http://ieee-cas.org/

WELCOME MESSAGE – GENERAL CHAIRS

Franco Maloberti Gianluca Setti

University of Pavia, Italy Politecnico di Torino, Italy

It is a true honor and pleasure to welcome you to the 50th anniversary edition of the IEEE International
Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS 2018) in Florence. Since its first edition, held in Miami Beach, FL,
in 1968, ISCAS is the premier networking and exchange forum at international level for researchers and
practitioners in the fields of theory, design and implementation of circuits and systems.
We are particularly proud to bring the Circuits and Systems (CAS) community back to Italy, after the ISCAS
1982 edition in Rome, which was a landmark event for the Italian CAS community, having as General Chair
Prof. Antonio Ruberti, a future Italian Minister of University and Scientific Research.
This year, our Conference Theme “Art of Circuits and Systems” highlights the strong foundation in methodology
and the integration of multidisciplinary approaches which are the distinctive features of CAS contributions. The
worldwide CAS community is exploiting such Art to change the way in which devices and circuits are
understood, optimized, and leveraged in a variety of systems and applications that today benefit from
miniaturization and integration. ISCAS is the flagship technical conference of the IEEE Circuits and Systems
Society (CASS), and as such, the primary meeting point of many long-standing colleagues. While we are eager
to see them soon, we particularly welcome all newcomers to ISCAS. We hope that for them too, this will be
the first of many recurring scientific gatherings, where they can develop extensive future collaboration,
discourse and innovation.
It has been our intention to use the occasion of the 50th anniversary edition to critically embrace our past and
use it as a springboard to leap into the future. To do so, we have introduced several modifications in the way
in which papers presented at ISCAS enter the scholarly records; they all aim at improving the visibility of
the exciting results presented at the conference. More specifically:
1. ISCAS 2018 has implemented for the first time in the history of the conference an Open Preview of
its content. This means that the ISCAS 2018 Proceedings have been available, Open Access, to the
entire Scientific Community in IEEE Xplore before the start of the conference.
2. The format of manuscripts submitted to ISCAS for review (and published in the ISCAS proceedings)
has been changed from 4 pages (double-column format) to a maximum of 5 pages of which 4 are
for technical content including text, figures and references (if any), and with one additional
optional 5th page containing only references. By doing so, our goal was to improve the way in
which authors can present their work (by giving them more space to do so and by allowing them to
refer to all the previous literature that they find relevant), thus enhancing the potential impact of their
paper on the readership.
3. ISCAS 2018 has tightened the collaboration with several CASS flagship Journals, namely the IEEE
Transactions on Circuits and Systems – Part I (TCAS-I), IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems –
Part II (TCAS-II), and IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems (TBioCAS). Our main
 goal is to allow authors of high quality selected papers accepted for presentation at the Symposium
to possibly publish a corresponding journal manuscript in a very short timeframe. More
specifically, authors of selected papers have received, together with the notification of acceptance for
ISCAS 2018, an invitation to, and detailed instructions on how to submit a manuscript derived from
their ISCAS paper to the Scholar One web site for one of the participating journals. For invitations to
TCAS-I (59 papers) or to TBioCAS (20 papers), authors had to prepare a substantially expanded
version of the corresponding ISCAS manuscript. For invitations to TCAS-II, given that the maximum
length of a TCAS-II is five pages only, the new manuscript was intended as just a minor revision of
the corresponding ISCAS paper. Due to the large overlap, accepted TCAS-II papers represent the only
record published in IEEE Xplore. Out of the 51 invited papers, 46 were submitted for possible
publication in TCAS-II, and 34 of them have been eventually published in the May 2018 issue.
Significant changes require persistence so that the seed of improvement may grow and consolidate. As such
ISCAS 2018 gladly followed the lead of the ISCAS 2017 edition and maintained, in addition to the realignment
of the conference Tracks and Sub-tracks, the following Innovation Themes: Internet of Things, Cognitive
Computing and Deep Learning, Big Data Processing, Smart Manufacturing & Industry 4.0, Smart Systems for
Automotive, Personalized Healthcare Systems, EDA Methodologies. Our goal was to highlight papers on-state-
of-the-art interdisciplinary topics. It is worth noting that about 37% (56 out of 155) of the lecture sessions are
aligned with one of these cross-cutting Innovation Themes. Keynote Talks have also been invited to offer a
deep dive into one of these themes.
Tightening the relationship with Industry and the Practicing Engineering sub-community of CASS has been a
focus of the most recent ISCAS editions. ISCAS 2018 has maintained the tradition of having a number of
invited talks from industry integrated throughout the technical program in order to place ISCAS’s technical
contributions in context relative to their commercial/societal impact. As an additional step forward to highlight
the importance of Industry participation to CASS, all four Keynote Presentations feature an Industrial speaker,
namely Dave Robertson (Analog Devices), Reid R. Harrison (Intan Technologies), Alessandro Cremonesi
(STMicroelectronics) and Denny Monti (Fiat Chrysler Automobile). We truly thank them for their participation
that will greatly benefit our community.
The conference begins with a day of tutorials on Sunday, May 27, followed by the Conference Opening and
by the first plenary talk. This in an innovation with respect to the past that – in our hope - will offer important
additional value to ISCAS participants. The program continues with 3 equally structured days, each featuring
a Keynote presentation, as well as parallel lecture sessions and mini-tutorials. The first day (May 28) of the
conference will feature the two Demo Sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. They will be
held in a separate room easily accessible from the Garden. You are all encouraged to come around for hearty
discussions and debates about the most exciting demos in our field. The second and third day (May 29 and
30) will feature a poster session in the morning and one in the afternoon. To be noted that, to give more
visibility to these interactive sessions, we decided to allocate them a time slot double than the corresponding
parallel lecture sessions.
We wish to sincerely thank the Technical Committees’ leadership and the Technical Program Co-Chairs,
Professors Yong Lian and Enrico Macii, for working around the clock to make such a high-profile Technical
Program. A special word of appreciation goes to the Special Session Co-Chairs, Dr. Elena Blokhina, Professor
Eduardo da Silva, and Professor Mario di Bernardo, for the incredible work they did in selecting high profile
Special Sessions among the record number of proposals we received this year. We owe a debt of gratitude to
the Tutorial Co-Chairs, Professors David Allstot, Gabriele Grandi, and Gaetano Palumbo for their tremendous
effort in the selection process of an outstanding set of cutting-edge tutorials and mini-tutorials. We also thank
the Plenary Co-Chairs, Professors Marco Gilli and Rui Martins for their hard work in bringing up such exciting
proposals for Keynote talks, as well the demo Co-Chairs Professor Pamela Abshire and Professor Philipp
Hafliger as well as the CAS Transactions Papers Selection Chairs, Professors Andreas Demosthenous, Massimo
Poncino and Wouter Serdijn, for the amazing work they did.
Overall, we have been fortunate in having assembled a very dynamic and diligent Organizing Committee.
Thank you so much for the support you have given us in this journey, for sharing your vision and for your
desire to mark the 50th anniversary with a memorable conference.
There are jobs in each Organizing Committee that, despite being less visible than others, require extreme
effort behind the scenes. Our greatest appreciation goes to Professor Sergio Callegari, Finance Chair and Dr.
Fabio Pareschi, Local Organizing Co-Chair, for having solved the countless problems connected with the YITP
grants, thus allowing us to offer a great opportunity to young scientists of our Community. Dr. Mauro Mangia
has been way more than just a Web and Media Chair. He has been a constant resource for solving many
practical problems in the day-by-day organization of ISCAS 2018.
A great thank goes to Rossella Spangaro, Laura Appiani, Federica Niero, and the “The Office” team for truly
being the “Angels” of the conference, capable of miraculously appearing whenever needed to perform their
organizing miracles. Thanks also to Tom Wehner of ePapers for all of your work behind the scenes. Many
thanks also to Dawn Melley, Sherri Young, Christina Zarello, and Diana Romeo of IEEE Publishing Operations.
Without their constant work, reaching out, professional attitude and kindness the Open Preview of ISCAS
proceedings in IEEE Xplore would not be a reality.
We sincerely thank all of the Authors, Track Chairs, Review Committee Members, Reviewers, Session Chairs,
Tutorial and Special Session Organizers, and the Invited Speakers. This conference would not be possible
without your contributions. We also thank the technical and financial sponsors, in particular, Politecnico di
Torino and University of Pavia, for allowing us to invest the time to organize ISCAS 2018. Last but not least,
we thank the IEEE CAS Society for selecting us to host this edition of ISCAS in Florence, Italy.
While attending ISCAS 2018 we shall have the opportunity to live in Florence which is, at the same time, an
open-air museum, a mainstay in Italian history, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982, the cradle of the
Italian language, and one of the most famous catwalks in the world. We are very fortunate to visit some of
these historical sites during our social events. The Welcome Reception will take place in the Great Cloister of
the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella founded by the monks of the Dominican Order in the first half of the
thirteenth century. The celebrity of Santa Maria Novella during the Middle Ages and Renaissance period
attracted important artists such as Giotto, Brunelleschi, Masaccio, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, Botticelli and
Vasari who realized beautiful artworks inside the complex, while the frescoes decorating the entire cloister
date back to the second half of the sixteenth century. We will have the chance to admire them while having
technical discussions or simply greeting friends and enjoy a tasting of Italian cuisine and wine.
On Monday, May 28, the Women in Circuits and Systems event will be hosted at the Istituto degli Innocenti,
a notable example of early Italian Renaissance architecture, which was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi (the
engineer of the Florence Cathedral dome) in 1419. Originally a children’s orphanage, it was built and managed
by the Silk Guild of Florence, one of the wealthiest in the city which, like most guilds, took upon itself
philanthropic duties.
The Gala Dinner will be hosted in the Fortezza da Basso, a fortress surrounded by the XIV century walls of
Florence in a compound designed by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger for Alessandro de’ Medici, Duke of
Florence and built between 1534 and 1537.
The Farewell Party will take place in the garden of the Congress Centre, and will be accompanied by the show
of the Castiglion Fiorentino Historical Group and its Flag-Wavers. This performance originates from the ancient
custom of flag-waving dating back to the 13th century when, throughout Europe and particularly in Italy, after
a special event like the end of a war, the standard bearers of the town’s military companies would celebrate
such event by performing difficult exercises with their flags. A great way to celebrate the conclusion on another
successful ISCAS edition.
Let us finally remind you that ISCAS 2018 has embraced the Food for Good project against food waste to the
benefit of communities in need.
We are looking forward to welcoming you all to Florence and hope that you will enjoy both the technical and
social aspects of the conference and that you will take away new ideas, fond memories and most important
the sense of proudly being part of the vibrant Circuits and System Community. Have a great time at ISCAS!!
WELCOME MESSAGE – TECHNICAL PROGRAME CHAIRS

Enrico Macii Yong Lian

Politecnico di Torino, Italy University of York, Canada

On behalf of the technical committee of the 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems
(ISCAS 2018), it is a great honor and privilege for us to welcome you to the “open-air museum” city of Florence.
As it is tradition for ISCAS since many years, or program consists of our regular lecture and poster sessions,
special sessions, live-demos, and tutorials.
As far as the latter are concerned, following the innovation introduced last year, we decided to offer, in addition
to the regular half- and full-day tutorials on Sunday, cutting edge mini-tutorials embedded in the regular
program, three per day, held in the plenary room and never in parallel with each other.
We continue the ISCAS tradition of offering keynote presentations by renowned experts in emerging areas
which are of particular significance for ISCAS. With respect to the past, where three keynote talks were offered,
we decided to enhance the program with a fourth plenary which will be held on Sunday late afternoon,
immediately following the conference opening and before all of us enjoying the Welcome Reception at the
spectacular Santa Maria Novella Cloisters.
More precisely, on Sunday, David H. Robertson, ADI Product and Technology Director for High Speed
Converter and ADI Technical Fellow, will give a talk on “Innovation without boundaries”, followed by a keynote
talk on Monday by Reid R. Harrison, one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the CAS community and
founder of Intan Technologies, on “Building better tools for neuroscience: Custom microchips for
electrophysiology instrumentation”. This will be followed, on Tuesday, by the talk on “The Digital
Transformation: Connecting The Sand to The Cloud” by Alessandro Cremonesi, Group Vice President, General
Manager of ST Central Labs, and finally on Wednesday, Denny Monti, Vice President of FCA Global
Manufacturing Engineering Vehicle and EMEA Manufacturing Engineering Director, will present a talk on
“Digital Manufacturing: from the FCA journey to a general framework”.
To stress the connection between CASS and its reference industrial community, all keynote presentations are
offered by industry speakers. With the 7 industrial invited talks embedded in the program, these contributions
will certainly offer to the attendees a taste of what is currently hot in industry.
We have maintained the Innovation Themes, introduce at ISCAS 2017, as an effort to bridge contributions
across different technical fields. You will find themes on Internet of Things, Cognitive Computing and Deep
Learning, Big Data Processing, Smart Manufacturing & Industry 4.0, Smart Systems for Automotive,
Personalized Healthcare Systems, EDA Methodologies binding together sessions from different technical
activities and ISCAS tracks under a common topical umbrella. We are convinced that these high-level themes
may promote better interactions among attendees and add new cross-disciplinary perspectives to our field.
We also continue the new ISCAS traditions of Late-Breaking News, with three sessions granting our attendees
access to the latest achievements within selected fields, and presentations of accepted/published papers in
IEEE Circuits and Systems journals in 2017. This year we have integrated the journal abstracts into topically
matched regular sessions, as well as created topical sessions contained only these kind of contributions,
whenever possible.
You will also find our usual Sunday tutorials, this year with two full-day tutorials and 16 half-day tutorials. The
regular program is composed of 792 papers (including LBNs), spread over 14 tracks, 110 lectures and 30
poster sessions distributed in three exciting days. Considering the total of 1490 papers submitted in the
corresponding tracks, the resulting acceptance rate was 53%, in line with ISCAS tradition of quality in at least
a decade. In addition to the regular program, we are also fortunate to have 45 state-of-the-art special sessions
on a variety of CAS topics, such as Memristor based circuits and systems, Deep and Machine learning, IoT,
Flexible electronics, Autonomous driving, among many others. Furthermore, ISCAS2018 is hosting two exciting
interactive sessions on live demonstration of circuits and system.
Authors from around the world will be attending and presenting their research results. The papers originate
from 49 different countries, making this symposium one of the leading opportunities for interaction among the
most important researchers and practicing engineers in the areas of electronic circuits and systems from all
over the world.
We are proud to have a large number of dedicated reviewers for ISCAS. No less than 6670 reviews were
submitted this year, giving an average of almost 3.9 reviews for each of the papers submitted to regular
tracks. Without the dedicated efforts from 39 Track Chairs (for regular and LNB tracks) and 370 Review
Committee Members (RCMs) as well as 3268 reviewers engaged in the ISCAS review process, preparing the
technical program for ISCAS in Florence would have been impossible!
Our sincere gratitude goes also to the Special Sessions Co-Chairs, Dr. Elena Blokhina, Prof. Eduardo da Silva,
and Prof. Mario di Bernardo, who put in a great deal of work to coordinate the independently chosen RCMs
and the entire review process for the special sessions papers. Many thanks also go to the special sessions
organizers for choosing to share with us their visions on these cutting-edge technical topics.
We wish also to thank Tutorial Co-Chairs Prof David Allstot, Prof. Gabriele Grandi, and Prof. Gaetano Palumbo
for coordinating the extremely challenging tutorials selection procedure, as well as the tutorial speakers for
choosing ISCAS to present their excellent lectures.
Finally, our appreciation goes to the Demo Co-Chairs, Prof. Pamela Abshire and Prof. Philipp Hafliger, for their
outstanding job.
In addition to the technical program, we will have a large variety of social activities. Needless to say, Florence
is world-renowned for its Art and Culture, as well as for food and wine. We are confident that you will have a
wonderful time during the conference. In closing, we wish to thank you all again for your support and we hope
that you will enjoy the technical and social programs. Most of all… have a great time and bring back some
colourful memories!