Catalog Data:

477L MOS VLSI Circuit Design (4, Fa) Analysis and
design of digital MOS VLSI circuits including area, delay
and power minimization. Laboratory assignments including
design, layout, extraction, simulation and automatic
synthesis. Prerequisite: EE 327 or EE 338.

 

Text book:

Principles of CMOS VLSI Design: A Systems Perspective, Neil Weste, Kamran Eshraghian and Michael Smith, second edition, Addison Wesley, 2001

 

Course Coordinators:

Alice Parker, Professor of Electrical Engineering

 

Topics:

Introduction to CMOS circuits, MOS transistor theory, CMOS processing technology, CMOS fabrication, design rules, CMOS physical design, circuit characterization and performance estimation; resistance and capacitance switching characteristics, delay and inverter chains, Nand/Nor delays and power consumption, CMOS circuit/logic design, clocking strategies, dynamic logic

 

Course Objectives:

To introduce the student to the fundamental mathematical techniques for the design of VLSI circuits, and to develop application skills, including the ability to design simple cells, and to configure chips containing the simple cells

 

Course Outcomes:

The students will be able to:
1. Analyze and design complementary CMOS transistor circuits for NAND, NOR and compound gates and latches.
2. Understand the steps involved in fabrication of CMOS VLSI circuits.
3. Understand the application of and purpose of CMOS design rules.
4. Understand and apply basic methods for cell design.
5. Understand and apply basic MOS current and voltage equations.
6. Identify regions of operation of MOS transistors, and their corresponding equivalent circuits.
7. Approximate resistance and capacitance of MOS circuit elements, with emphasis on parasitic capacitance.
8. Understand and apply circuit equations in order to calculate/approximate rise and fall times and delays in simple MOS circuits.
9. Understand the types of power consumption in MOS circuits, and apply approximations to compute power consumption.
10. Develop a methodology for cell designs, and apply that methodology to a design project.
11. Design cell layouts in the laboratory, simulate and interpret simulation data from those layouts, using layout and simulation software.
12. Design, layout, and simulate a substantial project using earlier cell layouts based on given specifications (as in the final laboratory project)., and compete in a design contest where the winner demonstrates minimum area-delay product for the project.
13. Apply intuition to problem solve circuit problems without resorting to mechanical application of equations.
14. Understand the importance of designs that are centered, not overly complex, and easy to fabricate and test in a timely manner.

 

Laboratory Projects:

Three to four laboratory projects comprising a design project.