The research unit circuit design is working on integrated circuit design. There are two main research areas, on the one hand analogue integrated circuits and on the other hand optoelectronic integrated circuits. In the area of analogue integrated circuit design the integration of analogue circuits, e.g. operational amplifiers, mixers or filters, in state-of-the art nanometer CMOS technologies is the main focus. With the ongoing shrinking of the technology the supply voltages drop as well as the characteristics of the devices gets worse and worse. These limiting conditions necessitate new concepts and innovative ideas in circuit design. The second focus is on optoelectronic integrated circuits. The integration of photosensitive devices in CMOS and BiCMOS silicon technologies is the first step, the next one is the integration of complete optical receivers and signal processing.

Both research areas require beside careful design also the characterization of the realized microchips, which can be done in the own laboratory. The research unit Circuit Design is working on integrated circuit engineering.