ECE 467: Introduction to VLSI

Course Description


 

Credit Hours

Undergraduate: 4 & Graduate: 5


Course Goal

The goal of this course is to familiarize students with design and layout of Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) digital circuits.


Description

With a focus on CMOS technology it will cover various methods of designing VLSI circuits, and techniques of optimizing performance metrics, such as speed, area, power and signal integrity with the growing complexities of clocking, interconnect, and scaling issues. It will also introduce students to fabrication technologies, and implementation approaches of integrated circuits, such as full-custom, standard cell, gate array, FPGA, PLD etc. To familiarize students with the realities of design complexities and layout environment they will get exposure to VLSI CAD tools in the following levels – schematic, layout, extraction and circuit simulation as part of laboratory projects.


Prerequisite

ECE 340: Electronics-I


Text Book

§         Jan M. Rabaey, Anantha Chandrakasan and Borivoje Nikolic, “Digital Integrated Circuits – A Design Perspective (Second Edition)”, Prentice Hall (Text Book)


Reference Book:

§         John P. Uyemura, “Chip Design for Submicron VLSI: CMOS Layout and Simulation-1st Edition”, Thomson Engineering (Reference for Lab)  

§         N. Weste & David Harris, “CMOS VLSI Design – A Circuits and Systems Perspective”, Addison Wesley (Additional Reference)


Grading

Homework & Quiz:  20%                 Lab & Project: 25%                       Exams: 55%


Course Management

Through Course Website on UIC Blackboard: http://blackboard.uic.edu


Major

Topics

1.       Integrated Circuits: Concepts, Issues and Complexities

2.       Properties of Semiconductor Devices – Diode and MOSFET

3.       Physical Structure and Fabrication Process of Integrated Circuits

4.       Introduction to Circuit Simulation and Layout Tools

5.       CMOS Inverter – basic building block

6.       Combinational Circuit Designs:

§         Static, Dynamic and Ratioed Design

7.       Sequential Circuit Designs:

§         Bistable and Nonbistable Elements

8.       Design From System Perspective:

§         Designing Arithmetic Building Blocks

§         Semiconductor Memories

9.       Issues and Metrics of High Performance Digital VLSI Circuits:

§         Interconnect Issues and Scaling Trends

§         Timing Issues in Digital VLSI Circuits

§         Noise and Low Power Design Issues

10.   Digital Integrated Circuits Implementation Approaches: Custom, Semi-custom, Cell-based, and Array-based Design Approaches

11.   Brief Introduction to System Level Physical Design Issues: Floor Planning; Routing; and Input and Output Circuits


Masud H. Chowdury