Sina Balkir

Sina Balkir

Contact Information:

City Campus (Lincoln)
SEC C290F
(402) 472-3771
sbalkir2@unl.edu

Professor - Electrical Engineering

Academic Degrees

  • Ph.D., 1992 Northwestern University, IL
  • M.S., 1989 Northwestern University, IL
  • B.S., 1987 Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey

Areas of Research and Professional Interest

  • CAD of VLSI systems
  • Analog VLSI Design Automation
  • Focal Plane Arrays for Image Processing
  • Architectural Modeling and Circuit Design of DSP and Image Processing Systems
  • High Performance Circuit Simulation Techniques

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About Sina Balkir

Dr. Balkir worked as a software consultant on the development and implementation of CAD tools for special purpose parallel architecture computers at Comtek Consultants Group Inc., Evanston, IL, from 1991-92; as an assistant and associate professor of electrical engineering at Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey, from 1992-1998; and as a visiting professor of electrical engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from 1998 to 1999. Currently, he is a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Since joining UNL, Dr. Balkir founded and developed the externally funded Integrated Circuits and Systems research program and the associated UNL-ICSL (Integrated Circuits and Systems research laboratory) which is now equipped with a cluster of high-end multi-blade server and test facilities that run a variety of electronic design automation software. The laboratory is a member of both MOSIS and MUSE semiconductor, through which various state-of-the art IC design technologies and fabrication services are accessed. He is currently the director of research and IC design activities in the UNL-ICSL. He is responsible for curriculum development and instruction of Analog Integrated Circuit Design and VLSI Design courses.

Honors and Awards

  • UN-L, College of Engineering, Research and Creative Activity Award, 2018 (for activities associated with investigation or experimentation aimed at the discovery and/or interpretation of facts as well as the development of creative works or new products).
  • UN-L, College of Engineering, Multidisciplinary Research Award, for the project: “Development of an Integrated Hand-Held Neutron Detection Sensor System,” with J.I. Brand, P. Dowben, and S. Hallbeck, 2006.
  • UN-L, College of Engineering, Faculty Fellow Award, 2002.

Selected Publications

  • S. J. Murray, J. A. Schmitz, S. Balkir and M. W. Hoffman, "A Low-Power, Portable Radiation Detection System for High Count Rate, Long-Term Monitoring," in IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 23, no. 15, pp. 16823-16839, 2023.
  • S. J. Murray, J. A. Schmitz, S. Balkir and M. W. Hoffman, "A Low-Power Radiation Detection SoC with Neural Network Accelerator for Radioisotope Identification," in IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, vol. 70, no. 3, pp. 272-285, 2023.
  • M. Romer, S. Murray, J. Schmitz S. Balkir, M. Hoffman, “A low-power analog front-end amplifier for SiPM based radiation detectors,” Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 1048, 2023.
  • J.A. Schmitz, D. Rogge, S. Balkir, M. W. Hoffman, and M. Bauer, “A Low-Power, Highly Integrated Radiation Detection System for Portable, Long-Duration Monitoring,” IEEE Sensors Journal, Vol. 20, No. 18, pp. 10664-10678, 2020.
  • J.A. Schmitz, J.M. Sherman, S. Hansen, S.J. Murray, S. Balkir, and M. W. Hoffman, “A Low-Power, Single-Chip Electronic Skin Interface for Prosthetic Applications,” IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems, Special issue on selected papers from IEEE ISCAS 2019, Vol. 13, No. 6, pp. 1186-1200, 2019.
  • K. Sayood and S. Balkir, “Hardware Assisted Compression” in Encyclopedia of Big Data Technologies, Springer, 2018.
  • J.A. Schmitz, M.K. Gharzai, S. Balkir, M.W. Hoffman, D.J. White, N. Schemm, “A 1000 frames/s vision chip using scalable pixel-neighborhood- level parallel processing,” IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Vol. 52, No. 2, pp. 556-568, 2017.
  • D.J. White, M.W. Hoffman, S. Balkir, “Digital Offset Cancellation for Long Time-Constant Subthreshold OTA-C Integrators,” IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems - II, Vol. 62, No. 11, pp. 1038-1042, 2015.
  • X. Zhang, N. Schemm, S. Balkir, M.W. Hoffman “A Low-Power Compact NQR Based Explosive Detection System,” IEEE Sensors Journal, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 497-507, 2014.
  • C. Schrage, N. Schemm, S. Balkir, M.W. Hoffman, M. Bauer “A low-power directional gamma-ray sensor system for long-term radiation monitoring,” IEEE Sensors Journal, Vol. 13, No. 7, pp. 2610-2618, 2013.
  • D.J. White, P.E. William, M.W. Hoffman, S. Balkir, “Low-power analog processing for sensing applications: Low-frequency harmonic signal classification,” Sensors, MDPI, Vol. 13, No. 8, pp. 9604-9623, 2013.
  • X. Zhang, N. Schemm, S. Balkir, “A Novel Power Amplification Scheme for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance/Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance Systems,” Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 82, No. 3, Mar. 2011.
  • N. Schemm, S. Balkir, M.W. Hoffman, M. Bauer, D. Schultz, D. Petrosky, J. McClory, M. Natta, J. Brand, J. Tang, W. Wang, “A Single Chip Computational Sensor System for Neutron Detection Applications,” IEEE Sensors Journal, Vol. 10, No. 7, pp. 226-1233, July. 2010.
  • N. Schemm, S. Balkir, M.W. Hoffman, “A 4 uW CMOS Front End for Particle Detection Applications,” IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems - II, Vol. 57, No. 2, pp. 100-104, Feb. 2010.
  • D. K. Neumann, M. W. Hoffman and S. Balkir, “Dual-Antenna RF CMOS Front-End for Interferer Removal in Ultra-Wideband Systems,” Circuits, Systems and Signal Processing, Birkhauser-Boston, Vol. 27, No. 3, pp. 381-390, June 2008.
  • Z. Lin, M. W. Hoffman, N. Schemm, W. D. Leon Salas, S. Balkir, “A CMOS Image Sensor for Multi-level Focal Plane Image Decomposition,” IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems - I, Vol. 55, No. 9, pp. 2561- 2572, Oct. 2008.
  • K. Karahaliloglu, P. Gans, N. Schemm, S. Balkir, “Pixel Sensor Integrated Neuromorphic VLSI System for Real-Time Applications,” Neurocomputing, Elsevier Publishing, Vol. 72, No. 1-3, pp. 293-301, Dec. 2008.
  • G. Tulunay and S. Balkir, “A Synthesis Tool for CMOS RF Low Noise Amplifiers,” IEEE Transactions on Computer Aided Design, Vol. 27, No. 5, pp. 977-982, May 2008.
  • W. D. Leon Salas, S. Balkir, K. Sayood, N. Schemm, and Michael W. Hoffman, “A CMOS Imager with Focal Plane Compression using Predictive Coding,” IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Vol. 42, No. 11, pp. 2555- 2572, Nov. 2007.
  • W. D. Leon Salas, S. Balkir, K. Sayood, N. Schemm, and M. W. Hoffman, “A Low-Complexity Circuit for On-Sensor Concurrent A/D Conversion and Compression,” IEEE Sensors Journal, Vol. 7, No. 9, pp. 1317-1325, Sept. 2007.
  • K. Osberg, N. Schemm, S. Balkir, J.I. Brand, S. Hallbeck, P. Dowben, M. W. Hoffman, “A Hand-held Neutron Detection Sensor System Utilizing a New Class of Boron Carbide Diode,” IEEE Sensors Journal, Vol. 6, No. 6, pp. 1531-1538, Dec. 2006.
  • W. D. Leon Salas, S. Balkir, K. Sayood, and M. W. Hoffman, “An Analog- to-Digital Converter with Golomb-Rice Output Codes,” IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems - II, Vol. 53, No. 4, pp. 278-282, April 2006.
  • J. G. Rollins, S. Balkir, P. Bendix, “Computer Software for Circuit Analysis and Design” in Handbook of Electrical Engineering – Circuits, Signals, and Speech and Image Processing, Vol. I, Ch. 13, 3rd Edition, CRC Press, 2006.
  • K. Karahaliloglu and S. Balkir, “Bioinspired Compact Cell Circuit for Reaction- Diffusion Systems,” IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems - II, Vol. 52, No. 9, pp. 558-562, Sep 2005.
  • K. Karahaliloglu and S. Balkir, “Compact MOS Implementation of a Reaction- Diffusion CNN,” Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 139-145, Feb. 2005.
  • S. Balkir, G. Dundar, S. Ogrenci, “Analog VLSI Design Automation”, CRC press, 2003, FL, USA.
  • G. Alpaydin, S. Balkir, G. Duundar, “An Evolutionary Approach to Automatic Synthesis of High-Performance Analog Integrated Circuits,” IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 240-252, June 2003.
  • G. Alpaydin, G. Duundar, S. Balkir “Evolution Based Design of Neural Fuzzy Networks Using Self-Adapting Genetic Parameters,” IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 211-221, April 2002.