Nan Sun's homepage

1. CMOS RF nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) biomolecular sensor: By combining the physics of NMR with CMOS RF ICs, I created a 0.1-kg palm NMR system that can be used for biomolecular sensing, disease screening, oil detection, and potentially, quantum computing. Specifically, this system was demonstrated capable of detecting human cancer cells and cancer marker proteins. It is 1200 times smaller, 1200 times lighter, yet 150 times more spin-mass sensitive than a state-of-the-art 120-kg commercial system. From the general NMR application point of view, the size and cost reduction of this work can amplify the usefulness of NMR in its various applications. From the circuit design point of view, the work showcases how silicon RF chips can be used not only for wireless communication, but also for biosensing aimed at disease detection. From the biotechnology viewpoint, it offers an interesting research direction for rapid and low-cost general-purpose diagnostics.

Selected Honors & Awards

Harvard Teaching Award, 2010
Harvard Teaching Award, 2009
Harvard Teaching Award, 2008
Analog Devices Outstanding Student Designer Award, 2007
Harvard Graduate Fellowship, 2006
Caltech Atwood Fellowship, Stanford 3-Quarter Fellowship, and Yale Fellowship, 2006 (Declined)
Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis Award, Tsinghua University, 2006
Hewlett-Packard Fellowship (awarded to the top ranker, EE, Tsinghua U.), 2005
December 9 Fellowship (awarded to the top 1%, Tsinghua U.), 2004
Samsung Fellowship (awarded to the top ranker, EE, Tsinghua U.), 2003
First-class Fellowships (awarded to the top 1%, Tsinghua U.), 2002-2005
Top Prize, 2003 Intercollegiate Physics Competition, Beijing, China
Top Prize, 2001 National Physics Olympiad, Beijing, China
Top Prize, 2000 National Mathematics Olympiad, Beijing, China

Publications

Journal:

[10] Nan Sun, "Mismatch-shaped segmented multibit ΔΣ DACs," submitted toIEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems - I.

[9] Nan Sun, "High-order mismatch-shaping in multibit DACs," submitted to IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems - II.

[8] Nan Sun, “Digital background calibration of pipelined ADC exploiting comparator threshold variation," submitted to IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems - I.

[7] Nan Sun, Tae-Jong Yoon, Hakho Lee, William Andress, Ralph Weissleder, and Donhee Ham, “Palm NMR and one-chip NMR," IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (JSSC), vol. 46, no. 1, January 2011.

[6] Nan Sun, Robert M. Westervelt, and Donhee Ham, “Silicon microelectronic chips in the human healthcare and life sciences,” in preparation for Proceedings of the IEEE; article proposal accepted.

[5] Nan Sun, Hae-Seung Lee, and Donhee Ham, "A 2.9-mW 12-b 20-Ms/s pipelined ADC with dual-mode-based digital background calibration for gain variations and device mismatches," submitted to IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[4] Nan Sun, Yong Liu, Hakho Lee, Ralph Weissleder, and Donhee Ham, “CMOS RF biosensor utilizing nuclear magnetic resonance,” IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (JSSC), vol. 44, no. 5, pp. 1629-1643, May 2009.

[3] Nan Sun, Hae-Seung Lee, and Donhee Ham, ''Digital background calibration in pipelined ADCs using commutated feedback capacitor switching,'' IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems - II, vol. 55, no. 9, pp. 877-881, Sep. 2008.

[2] Nan Sun, William Andress, Kyoungho Woo, and Donhee Ham, "Surpassing tradeoffs by separation: examples in transmission line resonators, phase-locked loops, and analog-to-digital converters," (invited paper) Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science, Sep. 2008.

[1] David Ricketts, Xiaofeng Li, Nan Sun, Kyoungho Woo and Donhee Ham, "On the self-generation of electrical soliton pulses," IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (JSSC), vol. 42, no. 8, pp. 1657-1668, August 2007.

Conference:

[3] Nan Sun, Yong Liu, Hakho Lee, Ralph Weissleder, and Donhee Ham, “Silicon RF NMR biomolecular sensor - Review,” (invited paper) IEEE Proceedings of International Symposium on VLSI Design, Automation & Test (VLSI-DAT), Apr. 2010 (to appear).

[2] Nan Sun, Tae-Jong Yoon, Hakho Lee, William Andress, Vasiliki Demas, Pablo Prado, Ralph Weissleder, and Donhee Ham, "Palm NMR and one-chip NMR," IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) Digest of Technical Papers, pp. 488-489, Feb. 2010.

[1] Yong Liu¹, Nan Sun^1,2, Hakho Lee, Ralph Weissleder, and Donhee Ham, “CMOS mini nuclear magnetic resonance system and its application for biomolecular sensing,” IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) Digest of Technical Papers, pp. 140-141, Feb. 2008.

¹Equal contribution

²Presenter at ISSCC 2008

Miscellaneous:

[1] Nan Sun and Donhee Ham, "Digital acceleration of correlation-based digital background calibration in pipelined ADCs," Technical Report, Harvard University, August 2008.

Book Chapters

[3] Nan Sun and Donhee Ham, “Handheld CMOS NMR systems,” invited book chapter in Point of Care Diagnostics on a Chip, Springer (Edited by Robert Westervelt and David Issadore; to appear)

[2] Nan Sun, Yong Liu, and Donhee Ham, “Low cost diagnostics − RF designer’s approach,” invited book chapter in Bioelectronics: Fabrication, Circuits and Interfaces, CRC press (Edited by Kris Iniewski; in press).

[1] Ozgur Yildirim, Nan Sun, and Xiaofeng Li, “Chaotic soliton oscillator and communications,” invited book chapter in Electrical Solitons: Theory, Design, and Applications, CRC press.

Invited Talks

[16] Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 01/04/2011.

[15] IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, 12/10/2010.

[14] Bruker Biospin Inc, Billerica, MA, 11/16/2010.

[13] Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, 07/09/2010.

[12] Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 07/05/2010.

[11] Institute of Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, 07/01/2010.

[10] Fudan University, Shanghai, China, 06/17/2010.

[9] Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China, 06/17/2010.

[8] Rice University, Houston, TX, 04/14/2010.

[7] Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 04/08/2010.

[6] University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 03/25/2010.

[5] Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 03/22/2010.

[4] Schlumberger-Doll Research Center, Cambridge, MA, 03/10/2010.

[3] Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 02/04/2010.

[2] Harvard University, 02/02/2010.

[1] CMOS Emerging Technology Conference, Calgary, Canada, 02/2009.

Patents

[3] Nan Sun, “Dual-mode-based digital background calibration for gain variations and device mismatches,” filed for US patent protection on 12/29/09.

[2] Nan Sun and Donhee Ham, “Systems and methods for design and construction of NMR transceiver circuits,” filed for US and international patent protection on 02/25/09.

[1] Nan Sun et al, “Miniaturized magnetic resonance systems and methods,” filed for US and international patent protection on 10/06/08.

Professional Experiences

Technical Program Committee Member in:

Asian Solid-State Circuits Conference (ASSCC), 2011

Conducted paper reviews for:

IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (JSSC)
IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques (MTT)
IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems − I (TCAS-I)
IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems − II (TCAS-II)
IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS)
Journal of Magnetic Resonance (JMR)

Research assistant, Prof. Donhee Ham’s lab, Harvard U., 2006-2010.

Research assistant, Prof. Zhiping Yu's lab, Institute of Microelectronics, Tsinghua U., 2005-2006

Research Intern, Institute of Electronics, Chinese Academy of Science, 2005

Teaching Experiences

Instructor of EE 338K: Electronic Circuit II, Spring 2011.

Teaching Fellow of ES 154: Electronic Devices and Circuits, Fall 2009.

Student evaluation score (Q-score): 4.5/5.0
Harvard Teaching Award

Teaching Fellow of ES 272: High-Speed and RF Integrated Circuits, Spring 2009.

Student evaluation score (Q-score): 4.7/5.0
Harvard Teaching Award

Teaching Fellow of ES 272: High-Speed and RF Integrated Circuits, Fall 2007.

Student evaluation score (Q-score): 4.9/5.0
Harvard Teaching Award