CSE460: VLSI Design

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Introduction to VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) design: history, IC trends, technology & design approaches. Moore’s law. Review of digital logic design. Introduction to logic circuit families: n-MOS, p-MOS, pseudo n-MOS and CMOS technologies. Introduction to CMOS logic. Pull-up and pull-down networks, implementation using series and parallel MOSFETs. Combinational logic circuit design using CMOS. Complex gate design using CMOS such as And-Or-Invert or Or-And-Invert. Implementation of different circuit elements like basic gates. Multiplexers, encoder, latch, flip-flops using CMOS. Introduction to FSM (Finite State Machine): Moore type & Mealy type FSM hardware implementation. State encoding & minimization techniques. Integrated circuit fabrication technology: photolithography, CMOS process flow, design rules. Estimation of resistance and capacitance from layout. Layout comparison. Stick diagram and area estimation. Eulerian paths. CMOS transistor theory: modes of operation. Derivation of I-V characteristics. MOS capacitance. DC Response of CMOS gates: n-MOS & p-MOS pass transistors. Logic levels and noise margins. DC transfer characteristics. CMOS Power: instantaneous and average power, energy. Power analysis of circuit elements (R, C, DC Supply). Switching waveforms of an inverter. Static power and Dynamic power. Activity factor. Power reduction techniques: Clock gating, Power gating, Dynamic voltage scaling. Transient response of CMOS gates. Delay definitions: rise time, fall time, propagation delay and contamination delay, RC delay model. Effective resistance & capacitance. Elmore delay. Parasitic and effort delay. Fan-in and fan-out. Layout comparisons. Physical design of ICs: floorplanning, partitioning, routing, clock tree synthesis, KL Algorithm for partitioning, Lee’s algorithm for global routing.

Course Objectives

Course objectives are:
1. The objectives of this course are to give a brief introduction to the complete process of chip designing
2. provide background knowledge to design, simulate and implement combinational & sequential CMOS circuits
3. teach theoretical concepts to critically analyze the cost & performance of an IC
4. expose the students to the fabrication process & physical design aspects of CMOS IC design
5. introduce the necessary programming language/softwares such as: Verilog (programming language), Quartus II, Microwind & DSCH2 to design, simulate, visualize and verify CMOS logic circuits and layouts

List of Books

1. CMOS VLSI Design: A Circuits and Systems Perspective,Neil H. E. Weste & David Money Harris,2011,4th ed.,Addison-Wesley,ISBN 13: 978-0-321-54774-3

2. Fundamentals of Digital Logic with Verilog Design,Stephen Brown & Zvonko Vranesic,2014,3rd ed.,McGraw-Hill,ISBN 978–0–07–338054–4

Course Materials

Lecture notes and presentation slides, Class notes, Lab handouts and presentation slides, Softwares: Quartus II, DSCH2, Microwind (shall be provided at on-campus computer labs)

Course Outcome