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EE 466: VLSI Design

Catalog Information
Course Number: 
466
Credits: 
3
Offered: 
Fall
Pre-Requisites
EE 234: Microprocessor Systemss
EE 311: Electronics
EE 324: Fundamentals of Digital Systems

Knowledge of digital or microprocessor design and computer architecture.

Class Information
Objectives: 

Design and analysis of CMOS circuits, Macros/Cells and sub-systems with emphasis on compact low power, high-speed circuits and special purpose digital systems. Students will design and simulate a medium scale digital system for fabrication.

Structure: 

Three 50-minute lectures per week and 6 to 8 assignments per semester. There usually are two one-hour exams and one two-hour final. There are two quizzes and one two-hour lab session per week (6-7 experiments per semester each lasting two weeks with the exception of the last laboratory experiment which will require three weeks to complete). Grade based on exams constitute 30% of total, homework 10% and labs 20 %, Term project 20 % and final exam 20 %.

Topics: 
  • Introduction to CMOS circuits: MOS transistor, CMOS Logic, Circuit representation, nMOS and pMOS transistors, MOS transistor design, The CMOS inverter (etc). (6 lecture hours and 0 lab hours)
  • MOS Transistor Theory: Enhancement pMOS and nMOS devices, MOS device design equations and DC characteristics of a CMOS inverter. (6 lecture hours and 2 lab hours)
  • CMOS processing Technology: Circuit elements, Layout Design rules and Latchup. (3 lecture hours and 2 lab hours)
  • Circuit characterization and performance evaluation: Resistance and capacitance estimation, Switching characteristics and Transistor sizing. (6 lecture hours and 4 lab hours)
  • CMOS Circuit Logic and Design: Physical design of logic gates, CMOS logic structures, Logic Delay estimation, I/O Structures and Clocking schemes. (3 lecture hours and 2 lab hours)
  • Design methods: Design strategies, Design options (gate arrays) and Advanced design tools (capture and verification). (6 lecture hours and 4 lab hours)
  • Subsystem Design: Adders, comparators, multipliers, Memories,  and Programmable logic arrays (PLAs). (6 lecture hours and 6 lab hours)
  • VLSI Processor: Datapath and control unit, Register file, Arithmetic logic unit (ALU). (6 lecture hours and 6 lab hours)
  • Advanced Topics: A peak into emerging devices and new nano-architectures. (3 lecture hours and 0 lab hours)
Lab Projects: 

Laboratory assignments start with an introduction to the Cadence design tools and each assignment thereafter becomes a piece required for the term project (the Macros/cells). There are 7 laboratory experiments.

Requirements
Textbooks/References: 

N.Weste and K.Eschraghian, Principles of CMOS VLSI Design: A systems perspective. Third Edition. Edison Wesley, 2004

Professor/Coordinator: 
Primary: Jabulani Nyathi Secondary: Jose Delgado-Frias
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