Newswise — The Large Hadron Collider is about to get an upgrade. When it’s back online, the massive instrument will use radiation-hardened chips to measure 1.5 billion particle collisions per second.
Columbia Engineering researchers have developed specialized silicon analog-to-digital converter (ADC) chips for CERN that signal the next leap in particle physics. The team, led by Peter Kinget, the Bernard J. Lechner Professor of Electrical Engineering, designed a chip for CERN’s ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. As highlighted in IEEE Spectrum, the custom chips are built to withstand one of the most extreme radiation environments on Earth and use advanced error-correction techniques to ensure accurate data capture for groundbreaking physics research. The research collaboration also underscores how academia is helping to advance critical research considered too niche for market investment.
For a deeper look at the multi-year design effort, read our full story: Engineering the Next Generation of Experimental Physics.
MOSbius for analog circuit education
Kinget’s team is also pursuing innovation in electrical engineering education through a programmable chip that can help students and hobbyists learn analog system design. MOSbius is a breadboard-friendly, field-programmable transistor array that can be used to make analog circuits. Kinget, who is a Fellow of IEEE, penned an article for IEEE Spectrum about the origins of MOSbius and how other educators can get involved. MOSbius is also a track in the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society Chipathon 2025, where students from all over the world design chips that will be fabricated for free after review.
