Electrical and Computer Engineering

Background  Professor David J. Comer received the MSEE degree from the University of California and the PhD from Washington State University. He spent five years with IBM Advanced Systems Development Division before beginning his teaching career at the University of Idaho. He has taught at the University of Calgary and at California State University, Chico where he served as dean of the engineering program. Since 1981, he has been a professor at BYU, serving as department chair from 1990 to 1993.

Research Professor Comer's areas of interest include passive and active filter design, MOS amplifier design, wideband amplifier design, operation of MOS stages in the weak inversion region, and high-speed chip-to-chip communications. Eight patents have been applied for in Professor Comer's name, two by IBM and six by Intel.

Professional Professor Comer was elevated to the grade of Fellow of the IEEE in 2005. He has consulted in the field of circuit design for IBM, Intel, Lawrence Livermore Labs, and Mobility Systems Inc. He has published twelve textbooks in the area of circuit design. He served on the California Engineering Liaison Committee for five years and as Chair of the Council of California State University Deans of Engineering.  Professor Comer has served on the Board of Directors for three start-up companies.

Recent Undergraduate Courses

ECEn 313 Electronic Circuit Design

ECEn 443 Communication and Power Circuits

Recent Graduate Classes

ECEn 541 Passive and Active Filter Design

ECEn 542R Wireless CMOS Communication Circuits and Systems

ECEn 543 CMOS Amplifier Design

Professor Comer's areas of interest include passive and active filter design, wideband MOS amplifier design, operation of MOS amplifier stages in the weak inversion region, CMOS instrumentation IC amplifiers, and wireless communications.

Textbooks

[1]    D. J. Comer and D. T. Comer, Advanced Electronic Circuit Design. John Wiley and Sons, 2002, 506 pp.

[2]    D. J. Comer and D. T. Comer, Fundamentals of Electronic Circuit Design. John Wiley and Sons, 2002, 490 pp.

[3]    D. J. Comer, Digital Logic and State Machine Design. Third Edition. Saunders College Publishing, January 1995, 573 pp.

[4]    G. Miner and D. J. Comer, Acquisition of Physical Data for Digital Processing. Prentice Hall, February 1992, 471 pp.

[5]    D. J. Comer, Digital Logic and State Machine Design, Second Edition. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, January 1990, 514 pp.

[6]    D. J. Comer, Microprocessor Based System Design. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, March 1986, 390 pp.

[7]    D. J. Comer, Digital Logic and State Machine Design. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Feb. 1984, 435 pp.

[8]    D. J. Comer, Electronic Design with Integrated Circuits. Addison-Wesley, March 1981, 353 pp.

[9]    D. J. Comer, Modern Electronic Circuit Design. Addison-Wesley, January 1976, 695 pp.

[10]  D. J. Comer, Computer Analysis of Circuits. International Textbook, May 1971, 356 pp.

[11]  D. J. Comer, Semiconductor Circuits Laboratory Manual. Prentice Hall, June 1969, 124 pp.

[12]  D. J. Comer, Introduction to Semiconductor Circuit Design. Addison-Wesley, June 1968, 421 pp.

Journal Publications

[1]    K. D. Clark and D. J. Comer, ``Tuned negative capacitance circuitry for CMOS amplifier bandwidth extension,'' International Journal of Electronics, Vol. 96, No. 1, pp. 1-9, January 2009.

[2]    K. D. Layton, D. T. Comer, and D. J. Comer, ``Bulk-driven gain-enhanced fully-differential amplifier for Vt~+~2Vdsat operation,'' IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems--Conference Proceedings, pp. 77-80, May 2008.

[3]    T. M. Hollis, and D. J. Comer, "Bandpass filtering of high-speed forwarded clocks," Journal of Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing, Online, February 20, 2008, www.springerlink.com/content/763gt552m64xg721.

[4]    T. M. Hollis, D. T. Comer, and D. J. Comer, "Mitigating ISI through self-calibrating continuous-time equalization," IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I, Vol. 53, No. 10, October 2006, pp. 2234-2245.

[5]    Y. Cheng, C. Petrie, B. Nordick, D. J. Comer, and D. T. Comer, "Multibit delta-sigma modulator with two-step quantization and segmented DAC," IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, Part II: Express Briefs, Vol. 53, No. 9, September 2006, pp. 848-852.

[6]    D. J. Comer, "The changing face of circuit design," IEEE Potentials, Vol. 25, No. 3, May/June 2006, pp. 26-30.

[7]    T. M. Hollis, D. T. Comer, and D. J. Comer, "Optimization of MOS amplifier performance through channel length and inversion level selection," IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, Part II: Express Briefs, Vol. 52, No. 9, September 2005, pp. 545-549.

[8]    Y. Dai, D. T. Comer, and D. J. Comer, "A GaAs HBT bandgap voltage reference," International Journal of Electronics, Vol. 92, No. 2, February 2005, pp. 87-97.

[9]    D. J. Comer, D. T. Comer, and C. S. Petrie, "The utility of the active cascode in analog CMOS design," The International Journal of Electronics, Vol. 91, No. 8, August 2004, pp. 491-502.

[10]  Y. Dai, D. T. Comer, and D. J. Comer, "A fast settling HBT reference amplifier for high speed digital to analog converters," The Journal of Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing, in press.

[11]  Y. Dai, D. T. Comer, D. J. Comer, and C. S. Petrie, "Threshold voltage based CMOS voltage reference," IEEE Proceedings-Devices, Circuits, Devices, and Systems. Vol. 151, No. 1, Feb. 2004, pp. 58-62.

[12]  Y. Dai, D. T. Comer, D. J. Comer, and D. Korth, "Simplified modeling of a multipole amplifier with all-pass networks," The Journal of Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing, Vol. 43, April 2005, pp. 39-47.

[13]  D. J. Comer and D. T. Comer, "Using the weak inversion region to optimize input stage design of CMOS op amps," {IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, Part 2, Vol. 51, No. 1, January 2004, pp. 8-14.

[14]  D. J. Comer and D. T. Comer, "Operation of analog MOS circuits in 7he weak or moderate inversion region," IEEE Transactions on Education, Vol. 47, No. 4, November 2004, pp. 430-435.

[15]  D. J. Comer, D. T. Comer, A. Martin, J. Jaussi, "A high-frequency CMOS current summing circuit," Journal of Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing. Vol. 36, Sept. 2003, pp. 215-220.

[16]  D. J. Comer and D. T. Comer, "Teaching MOS integrated circuit amplifier design to undergraduates," IEEE Transactions on Education, Vol. 44, No. 3, August 2001, pp. 232-238.

[17]  D. T. Comer and D. J. Comer, "A CMOS voltage to current converter for low voltage applications," Journal of Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing. Vol. 26, February 2001, pp. 117-124.

[18]  Skye Wolfer, D. T. Comer, and D. J. Comer, "A high-speed precision voltage buffer in a sub-micron CMOS process,"InternationalJournal of Electronics. Vol. 87, No. 12, December 2000, pp. 1443-1452.

[19]  D. T. Comer and D. J. Comer, "A new amplifier circuit with both practical and tutorial value," IEEE Transactions on Education. Vol. 43, No. 1, February 2000, pp. 25-29.

[20]  D. J. Comer, D. T. Comer, and W. J. Marble, "A high-impedance voltage bias circuit for iterative stage MOS amplifiers," IEEE Proceedings, Circuits, Devices and Systems. Vol. 145, No. 6, December 1998, pp. 437-439.

[21]  D. T. Comer and D. J. Comer, "A new fixed-gain amplifier architecture," International Journal of Electronics, Vol. 84, No. 4, April 1998, pp. 345-358.

[22]  D. J. Comer, D. T. Comer, B. K. Casper, and D. S. Korth, "A low-frequency, continuous-time notch filter using Gm - C circuits," International Journal of Electronics. Vol. 86, No. 11, November 1999, pp. 1349-1357.

[23]  B. K. Casper, D. J. Comer, and D. T. Comer, "An integrable 60-Hz notch filter," IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems: Part II, Vol. 46, No. 1, January 1999, pp. 74-78.

[24]  D. T. Comer, D. J. Comer, and J. R. Gonzalez, "A high-frequency integrable bandpass filter configuration," IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Analog and Digital Signal Processing, Vol. 44, No. 10, October 1997, pp. 856-861.

[25]  D. J. Comer, D. T. Comer, B. K. Casper, and J. R. Gonzalez, "An integrable single-pole lowpass filter for low frequency operation," International Journal of Electronics, Vol. 83, No. 1, July 1997, pp. 49-54.

[26]  D. J. Comer, "A theoretical design basis for minimizing CMOS fixed taper buffer area," IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Vol. 31, No. 6, June 1996, pp. 865-868.

[27]  S. M. Smith and D. J. Comer, "Automatic tuning of a fuzzy logic controller," IEEE Control Systems Magazine, (Invited), Vol. 11, No. 5, August 1991, pp. 18-28.

[28]  D. T. Comer and D. J. Comer, "Wideband precision current sources for integrated circuits," Journal of Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing (Invited), Vol. 1, No. 3, Fall 1991, pp. 151-156.

[29]  S. M. Smith and D. J. Comer, "Self-tuning of a fuzzy logic controller using a cell state space algorithm," Proceedings of the 1990 International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, November 1990, pp. 445-450.

[30]  D. J. Comer and D. K. Fox, "Theoretical analysis of the loop-gain modulator," IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, Vol. 37, No. 12, December 1990, pp. 1556-1559.

[31]  D. J. Comer and R. Herron, "A class-C loop-gain amplitude modulator," IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, Vol. 36, No. 1, Jan. 1989, pp. 159-161.

[32]  D. J. Comer, M. L. Christensen, and D. K. Fox, "The loop-gain modulator: a new class of linear amplitude modulators," IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, Vol. CAS-34, No. 10, Oct. 1987, pp. 1161-1164.

[33]  D. J. Comer, "Digital system design: state machine vs. microprocessor controller," IEEE Transactions on Education, Vol. E-30, No. 2, May 1987, pp. 102-106.

[34]  D. J. Comer, "High-frequency narrowband active filters," IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, Vol. CAS-33, No. 8, August 1986, pp 838-840.

[35]  D. J. Comer, "A theoretical basis for practical amplifier design using cascaded op amps," IEE Proceedings, Vol. 132, Pt. G, No. 4, August 1985, pp 161-164.

[36]  D. J. Comer, "Application of top-down principles to digital system design," IEEE Transactions on Education, Vol. E-26, No. 4, December 1983, pp. 170-172.

[37]  D. J. Comer, "The utility of the all-pass filter," IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, Vol. IM-28, No. 2, June 1979, pp. 164-167.

[38]  D. J. Comer, "Video amplifier design based on op amps," IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, Vol. CAS-23, No. 3, March 1976, pp. 169-171.

[39]  D. J. Comer and J. M. Griffith, "Designable video amplifiers using base-compensated stages," IEEE Transactions on Circuit Theory, Vol. CT-17, No. 1, February 1970, pp. 94-99.

[40]  D. J. Comer, "The use of waveform asymmetry to identify voiced sounds," IEEE Transactions on Audio and Electroacoustics, Vol. AV-16, No. 4, December 1968, pp. 500-506.

[41]  D. J. Comer and J. E. McDermid, "Inductorless bandpass characteristics using phase shift filters," IEEE Transactions on Circuit Theory, Vol. CT 15, No. 4, December 1968, pp. 501-503.

[42]  D. J. Comer and J. M. Griffith, "Optimization of bandwidth in noniterative amplifiers," IEE Proceedings, Vol. 116, No. 3, March 1969, p. 384.

[43]  D. J. Comer and J. M. Griffith, "Optimization of bandwidth in noniterative stages in a wideband amplifier," IEEE Transactions on Circuit Theory, Vol. CT-15, No. 3, Sept. 1968, pp. 280-281.

[44]  D. J. Comer, "Best match selector for pattern recognition applications," Electronic Engineering, Vol. 40, No. 481, March 1968, pp. 153-156.

[45]  D. J. Chesarek and D. J. Comer, "Magnetic tape coding," IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 9, Nov. 1967.

[46]  D. J. Comer, D. T. Comer, and W. Dickinson, "Fast response envelope 39modulator," IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 6, No. 10, March 1964.

[47]  D. J. Comer, "An analog ratio detector," IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 6, No. 5, October 1963.

[48]  D. J. Comer, "Teaching transistor circuit design to undergraduate engineers," IEEE Transactions on Education, Vol. E-10, No. 2, June 1967.

[49]  D. J. Comer, "Large deviation phase and frequency modulators," Electronic Engineering, Vol. 39, No. 474, August 1967, pp. 495-497.

[50]  D. J. Comer and D. T. Comer, "Control voltage determines multivibrator pulse width," Electronics, Vol. 40, No. 16, August 1967, pp. 115-116.

Invited Chapter Contributions to Books

[1]  D. J. Comer and D. T. Comer, "Chapter 10: Bipolar Junction Transistor Circuits," The VLSI Handbook, 2nd Edition. CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL, 2007, pp. 10-3 to 10-31.

[2]  D. J. Comer and D. T. Comer, "Chapter 23: Bipolar Junction Transistor Amplifiers," The VLSI Handbook, 2nd Edition. CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL, 2007, pp. 23-1 to 23-40.

[3]  D. J. Comer and D. T. Comer, "Bipolar Junction Transistor Circuits," Circuits and Filters Handbook, 2nd Edition. CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL, 2003, pp. 14-1 to 14-19.

[4]  D. J. Comer and D. T. Comer, "Digital electronic circuits," The Encyclopedia of Physical Science and Technology, 3rd Ed. Vol. 4, 2002, pp. 461-471.

[5]  D. T. Comer and D. J. Comer, "Analog signal electronic circuits," The Encyclopedia of Physical Science and Technology, 3rd Ed. Vol. 1,2002, pp. 121-131.

[6]  D. J. Comer and D. T. Comer, "Bipolar Junction Transistor Circuits," Circuits and Filters Handbook. CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL,

[7]  D. J. Comer and D. T. Comer, "Bipolar Junction Transistor Circuits," The VLSI Handbook. CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL, December, 1999.

[8]  S. M. Smith, B. R. Nokleby, and D. J. Comer, "A computational approach to fuzzy logic controller design and analysis using cell state space methods," Chapter 19. Fuzzy Control Systems, CRC Press, 1994, pp. 397-427.

Conference and Other Presentations

[1]  K. D. Layton, D. T. Comer, and D. J. Comer, "Analog circuit design at and below vt+2vds-sat," Proceedings of the Third Annual IEEE Conference on PhD Research in Microelectronics and Electronics, Bordeaux, France, 2007.

[2]  D. J. Comer, D. T. Comer, J. Perkins, K. Clark, and A. Genz, "Bandwidth extension of high-gain CMOS amplifier stages using active negative capacitance," 13th IEEE International Conference on Electronics, Circuits, and Systems, Nice, France, December 2006.

[3]  R. Beck, M. Riggs,, D. J. Comer, and D. T. Comer, "High-voltage Hall-effect sensor interface in a standard digital CMOS process," 32nd European Solid-State Circuits Conference, Montreux, Switzerland, September 2006.

[4]  T. M. Hollis, D. J. Comer, and D. T. Comer, "Self-calibrating continuous-time equalization targeting inter-symbol interference," IEEE-NEWCAS2006 Conference, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada, June 2006.

[5]  T. M. Hollis, D. J. Comer, and D. T. Comer, "Reduction of duty cycle distortion through bandpass filtering," First Annual IEEE Conference on PhD Research in Microelectronics and Electronics, Lausanne, Switzerland, July 2005.

[6]  S. A. Cook, K. D. Layton, W. J. Marble, D. T. Comer, D. J. Comer, and C. S. Petrie, "A programmable floating-gate voltage reference in 0.5 micron CMOS," IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, Orlando, Florida, 2004.

[7]  K. Layton, D. T. Comer, D. J. Comer, and D. Wilde,"A high-speed latching comparator in 0.5-micron CMOS," AMI Engineering Forum, American Microsystems Inc., Pocatello, Idaho, October, 2000.

[8]  D. Korth, D. T. Comer, D. J. Comer, and D. Wilde, "A low-power CMOS flash analog-to-digital converter," AMI Engineering Forum, American Microsystems Inc., Pocatello, Idaho, October, 2000.

[9]  D. T. Comer, P. Ferguson, D. J. Comer, and D. Wilde, "A high-speed CMOS buffer using feedforward compensation," AMI Engineering Forum, American Microsystems Inc., Pocatello, Idaho, October, 2000.

[10] D. T. Comer, Skye Wolfer, and D. J. Comer, "A High-Speed, Precision Buffer," AMI Engineering Forum, American Microsystems Inc., Pocatello, Idaho, October, 1999.

[11] W. J. Marble, D. T. Comer, and D. J. Comer, "A Low-noise Trimmable CMOS Preamplifier Stage," AMI Engineering Forum, American Microsystems Inc., Pocatello, Idaho, October, 1999.

[12] K. Layton, D. T. Comer, and D. J. Comer, "A CMOS Voltage to Current Converter for Low-Voltage Applications," AMI Engineering Forum, American Microsystems Inc., Pocatello, Idaho, October, 1999.

[13] J. Jaussi, D. T. Comer, and D. J. Comer, "CMOS Amplifier Using Special Cascode Connections," AMI Engineering Forum, American Microsystems Inc., Pocatello, Idaho, October, 1999.

[14] S. M. Smith and D. J. Comer, "Automated fuzzy logic controller calibration and performance evaluation," Proceedings of the 1992 International Fuzzy Systems and Intelligent Control Conference, Louisville, KY, March 1992, pp. 90-106.

[15] S. M. Smith and D. J. Comer, "An algorithm for automated fuzzy logic controller tuning," Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems, San Diego, CA, March 1992, pp. 615-622.

[16] D. J. Comer and B. R. Nokleby, "Automated design of fuzzy logic controllers," Utah Academy of Arts and Sciences, Salt Lake City, UT, May 1992.

[17] D. J. Comer, "Mobile robots," Engineering and Technology Symposium, Brigham Young University, March 1985.

[18] D. J. Comer, "Achieving higher performance in robots using fuzzy logic," Engineering and Technology Symposium, Brigham Young University, March 1988.

[19] D. J. Comer, "Eliminating trial-and-error methods in wideband amplifier design," Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Asilomar Conference on Circuits, Systems, and Computers, November 1975, pp. 222-225.

[20] D. J. Comer, "Simulating human speech perception and mobility by machine," Western Simulation Council, Keynote Address, California State University, Chico, CA, September 1973.

[21] D. J. Comer and J. M. Griffith, "Designable video amplifier stages," IEEE Symposium Digest, 1969 IEEE International Symposium on Circuit Theory, December 9, 1969. (Invited).

[22] D. J. Comer and J. E. McDermid, "A sensitivity study of bandpass filters using allpass networks," Proceedings of the Second Asilomar Conference on Circuits and Systems, November 1968, pp. 202-207.

Educational Publications

[1]  D. J. Comer, "Manpower myths," IEEE Spectrum, Speakout, Vol. 21, No. 2, Feb. 1984, pg. 12.

[2]  D. J. Comer, "Industry must help the University," Electronics, (In My Opinion), Vol. 55, No. 26, December 29, 1982, p. 20.

[3]  D. J. Comer, "EE's: Limiting the Supply", IEEE Spectrum, Forum, March 1978, p. 10.

[4]  D. J. Comer, "Who's Concerned?", IEEE Spectrum, Forum, March 1978, p. 10.

[5]  D. J. Comer, "In defense of the educator," Electronics, (Editorial), Vol. 49, No. 21, October 14, 1976.

Patents

[1]  D. J. Comer, A. K. Martin, and J. E. Jaussi, "Multiplier Using MOS Channel Widths for Code Weighting," U. S. Patent No. 7,020,675, March 28, 2006. Rights assigned to Intel Corp.

[2]  D. J. Comer, A. K. Martin, and J. E. Jaussi, "Multiplier with Output Current Scaling," U. S. Patent No. 7,010,563, March 7, 2006. Rights assigned to Intel Corp.

[3]  J. E. Jaussi and D. J. Comer, "Amplifier and Method for Voltage-to-Current Conversion," U. S. Patent No. 6856198, February 15, 2005. Rights assigned to Intel Corp.

[4]  A. K. Martin and D. J. Comer, "Voltage Multiplier Circuit," U. S. Patent No. 6,784,737, Aug. 31, 2004. Rights assigned to Intel Corp.

[5]  D. J. Comer, A. K. Martin, and J. E. Jaussi, "Active Current Mirror Circuit," U. S. Patent No. 6,563,369, May 13, 2003. Rights assigned to Intel Corp.

[6]  D. J. Comer, A. K. Martin, and J. E. Jaussi, "Current Mirror Circuits," Patent No. 6,630,818, October 7, 2003. Rights assigned to Intel Corp.

[7]  D. J. Comer and H. A. Ferrier, "Maximum Amplitude Detector," U. S. Patent No. 3,317,854 (1967). Rights assigned to IBM Corp.

[8]  D. J. Comer, "Phase and Frequency Modulator Circuits," U. S. Patent No. 3,214,710 (1965). Rights assigned to IBM Corp.

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PRESENT STUDENTS

PhD Student

Kevin Clark,  Applying Tuning Methods to Achive Precision in Integrated Circuits

MS Students

Steven Minch, Wideband CMOS Amplifier Design

Rishi Singh, High Gain CMOS Op Amp Design

Steven Noall, High Speed CMOS Phase Shifters in Communication Circuits