Bio

Ahmed received his B.Sc. degree from Cairo University in 2014. He is currently perusing his Ph.D. degree (2017-2022) at Stanford University. His research interests include biomedical electronics, medical implant and sensing systems, power management systems, analog-mixed circuits, ultra-low-power systems, energy harvesting, ultra-low-power transceivers, and RF systems.

Ahmed worked as an RFIC design engineer at Silicon Vision, Synopsys Inc. (2015-2016), where he worked on a state of the art Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) IP module. He also joined the teaching staff at the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, in 2014-2015 as a part of the teaching teams for the ELC102 Electronics and Devices course and the ELC302 Active Circuits course along with mentoring and supervising senior students' lab projects. From 2016 to 2017, he joined the Arbabian lab, Stanford University, as a visiting researcher where he worked with the implant team on designing wireless neural stimulation and pressure sensing systems. He also worked with Apple Inc. power management team in 2019 and 2020 on designing state-of-the-art power delivery systems.

Honors & Awards

  • 2020 TbioCAS Best Paper Award, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems (TBioCAS) (2020)
  • Best Poster Award, Stanford Bio-X Interdisciplinary Initiatives Seed Grant Program Symposium (2018)
  • Outstanding Student Designer Award, Analog Devices (ADI) (2018)
  • Named the Texas Instrument Fellow and awarded three years graduate fellowship, Texas Instrument and Stanford Graduate Fellowship (SGF) (2017)
  • First place at nation-wide Electronics Olympiads Egyptian qualifiers results, International Electronics Olympiads Committee (2015)
  • 2nd Place Nation-wide Graduation Project Contest Award in IC design track, IBTICAR (2014)
  • Awarded the M.Sc. fellowship from Cairo University for outstanding achievements, Cairo University, Faculty of Engineering (2014)
  • Outstanding Student Award Certificate, Schlumberger Middle East (2012)

Patents

  • Ahmed Sawaby, Alberto Puggelli. "United States Patent US10958164B1 Transient control for switched-capacitor regulators", Apple Inc., Mar 23, 2021

Contact

  • Academic
    asawaby@stanford.edu
    University - Student Department: Electrical Engineering Position: Graduate

Additional Info

  • Mail Code: 9505

Links

Projects

  • Ultra-Low Power Wireless Ultrasound Imaging Systems at the Edge, Stanford University (2017 - 2022)

    Combining ultra-low power design techniques and novel image processing techniques to enable world’s first mm-sized end-to-end wireless ultrasound imager. The system includes a fully integrated chip solution that includes multi-channel analog-front-ends, high-speed real-time image processing and reconstruction unit, custom memory modules, and wireless data transmission and power recovery unit.

    Location

    California, United States

  • A mm-sized wireless implantable device for electrical stimulation of peripheral nerves, Stanford University (2016 - 2017)

    Location

    California, United States

  • A miniaturized single-transducer implantable pressure sensor with time-multiplexed ultrasonic data and power links, Stanford University (2015 - 2016)

    Location

    California, United States

  • Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) 55nm IP, Silicon Vision (2015 - 2016)

    Location

    Cairo, Egypt

  • Transient control for switched-capacitor regulators, Apple Inc. (2019 - 2019)

    Location

    California, United States

2021-22 Courses

Work Experience

  • Analog IC design Engineer, Apple Inc (2019 - 2020)

    In summer of 2019, I worked on designing advanced power management control system for state-of-the-art SOCs (Patent: US-10958164B1). In summer of 2020, I also worked on designing advanced power-devices ultra-high frequency sensing circuits aimed to increase product longevity.

    Location

    United States

  • Visiting Researcher, Stanford University (2016 - 2017)

    Worked with the Biomedical Implant team at Arbabian Lab to design ultrasonically-powered implantable neural stimulation and pressure sensing systems

    Location

    California, United States

  • RFIC Design Engineer, Silicon Vision (2015 - 2016)

    Worked with the RFIC design team to design a Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) TSMC 55nm chip IP that was later acquired by Synopsys Inc. Was the designer lead for the power management unit of the IP.

    Location

    Egypt

  • Electronics Research Assistant, Cairo University (2014 - 2016)

    Worked on designing self-calibrating 1 GSps 12-bit current-steering DAC for custom frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) digital-to-RF transmitting chip. Project was sponsored by the NTRA, Egypt.

    Location

    Giza, Egypt

  • Teaching Assistant Staff at the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University (2014 - 2015)

    Part of the teaching teams for the ELC102 Electronics and Devices course and the ELC302 Active Circuits course along with mentoring and supervising senior students’ lab projects.

    Location

    Giza, Egypt

All Publications

  • A mm-Sized Wireless Implantable Device for Electrical Stimulation of Peripheral Nerves IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS Charthad, J., Chang, T., Liu, Z., Sawaby, A., Weber, M. J., Baker, S., Gore, F., Felt, S. A., Arbabian, A. 2018; 12 (2): 257–70

    Abstract

    A wireless electrical stimulation implant for peripheral nerves, achieving >10× improvement over state of the art in the depth/volume figure of merit, is presented. The fully integrated implant measures just 2 mm × 3 mm × 6.5 mm (39 mm3, 78 mg), and operates at a large depth of 10.5 cm in a tissue phantom. The implant is powered using ultrasound and includes a miniaturized piezoelectric receiver (piezo), an IC designed in 180 nm HV BCD process, an off-chip energy storage capacitor, and platinum stimulation electrodes. The package also includes an optional blue light-emitting diode for potential applications in optogenetic stimulation in the future. A system-level design strategy for complete operation of the implant during the charging transient of the storage capacitor, as well as a unique downlink command/data transfer protocol, is presented. The implant enables externally programmable current-controlled stimulation of peripheral nerves, with a wide range of stimulation parameters, both for electrical (22 to 5000 μA amplitude, ∼14 to 470 μs pulse-width, 0 to 60 Hz repetition rate) and optical (up to 23 mW/mm2 optical intensity) stimulation. Additionally, the implant achieves 15 V compliance voltage for chronic applications. Full integration of the implant components, end-to-end in vitro system characterizations, and results for the electrical stimulation of a sciatic nerve, demonstrate the feasibility and efficacy of the proposed stimulator for peripheral nerves.

    View details for DOI 10.1109/TBCAS.2018.2799623

    View details for Web of Science ID 000428547600001

    View details for PubMedID 29578414

  • A Miniaturized Single-Transducer Implantable Pressure Sensor With Time-Multiplexed Ultrasonic Data and Power Links Weber, M. J., Yoshihara, Y., Sawaby, A., Charthad, J., Chang, T., Arbabian, A. IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC. 2018: 1089–1101

    View details for DOI 10.1109/JSSC.2017.2782086

    View details for Web of Science ID 000428676100014

  • A High-Precision 36 mm(3) Programmable Implantable Pressure Sensor with Fully Ultrasonic Power-up and Data Link Weber, M. J., Yoshihara, Y., Sawaby, A., Charthad, J., Chang, T., Garland, R., Arbabian, A., IEEE IEEE. 2017: C104–C105

    View details for Web of Science ID 000428759000042

  • Mixed-Mode Self-Calibrated Amplitude Control Scheme for MEMS Vibratory Gyroscopes Sawaby, A., Ahmed, A. S., Abozeid, M. O., Ali, H., Aboudina, M. M., IEEE IEEE. 2016

    View details for Web of Science ID 000386900400036