Applied Digital ASIC Design

Catalog description

This course introduces contemporary design of digital very-large scale integration (VLSI) circuits and hands-on experience in digital VLSI design using state-of-the-art computer aided design (CAD) tools. The lectures will cover FinFET CMOS technology and scaling, design principles of core VLSI building units, including arithmetic circuits, sequential circuits, memory system, I/O circuitries, etc. Students will learn how digital VLSI implementations in CMOS are overarched by considerations of key design metrics, such as timing, power, area, and reliability. The lab assignments provide hands-on experience on how to implement a given algorithm onto an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), progressively going through the processes of hardware description language (HDL) coding on register transfer level (RTL), synthesis, automatic place-and-route, and post-layout verification processes (i.e. overall RTL-to-GDS flow). For the lab assignment, the process design kit and standard cell / memory libraries of TSMC 16nm ADFP (Academic Design Foster Package) will be used.