University of California,
Santa Barbara
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
VLSI Project Design
ECE 224A - Fall 2007
Instructor: Prof. Forrest Brewer 729-1410
Schedule:Mon/Wed 12 - 1:50 Fri(some) 12 - 1:50 ESB 1003
The course curricula and tools now support mixed
signal
design practice as well as conventional digial design. Projects may be either
digital or mixed or analog if desired. Other tools than MMI can be used if
desired, but you are on your own for support, libraries and technology
files. This course stresses practical layout and
full/semi-custom design techniques leading to fabrication of VLSI
integrated circuits. Given the short design time, a structured
methodology will be used stressing design modeling and constraint based
design. The projects will be completed by small groups (no larger than
4 people) and must meet design goals including area, performance,
validation, test and manufacturability to complete this course. These
constraints ensure that the final design can be fabricated and that
every measure has been taken to ensure a working design. The course
curricula must address the wide disparity in student backgrounds while
providing necessary design implementation knowledge. To meet these two
goals, some of the topics will be treated rapidly and appropriate
references will be noted. Deeper presentations of some of the following
topics are found in other VLSI courses at UCSB. The following topics
will be presented
at a depth that is appropriate for completion of the design projects: Course Organization: Lectures M,W 12-2, periodic homework and lab
assignments, class meetings in the Cooper Lab (ESB 1003) on Fridays 12-2
to introduce tools, go over simulation and design flows, answer design
or class related questions. There will be periodic (announced)
quizzes and a final exam in addition to the project. Stress in course
work is to provide necessary implementation knowledge to complete a
successful project. Projects will be constructed for AMI 0.5um 3-metal,
2-poly technology which can accommodate digital designs as large as
2-4k gates in default size (1.5 sq. mm), and supports high quality
capacitor, resistor, and NPN-bipolar transistors in addition to
complementary FET’s. Since the design area is relatively small for this
level of integration, projects will have limited external signalling
capacity, and are encouraged to integrate sensors such as photo-diodes,
Hall-effect devices, or mixed-signal designs in lieu of pure digital
constructions. Design planning must include a testing plan and ensure
that members of the team will be present in the spring to test the
fabricated designs (ECE 224b) and that such testing will be practical.
Design teams are strongly encouraged to include members
with differing backgrounds to cover the design requirements. Tools will center around the MMI Max/Sue full-custom design tools
which include structural Verilog and Hspice interfaces. ModelSim will
be used for logic level simulation. Specialized tools for data-path and
for array based topologies are available but higher level tools such as
logic synthesis and standard cell place/route are not
the focus of this course but can be used if desired. DRC/LVS and
parasitic extraction will be provided by the Calibre tool suite. Note-- lecture notes are provided here for early perusal. The course is
moving to support mixed signal/analog issues as well as digital ones so
the notes are likely to change over the quarter. I will indicate the lectures
that have been updated. ECE Syllabi || Electrical and
Computer Engineering || College of
Engineering || UCSB
Web Site Directory Last Updated:
September 27, 2004
There is a linux version of the MMI tool set available for personal computer use in this course so that design and analysis work need not be completed in the ECI lab. If interested, please see me about this.
(new) lvs_sample
ITRS 2006 RoadMap (Update)
Harris' Logical Effort Tutorial
Lecture Notes
SCMOS Design Rules
Physical Constants
Syllabus (pdf file)
Homework Assignments
HomeworkSolutions (Password Protected)
Text Books
Lecture Notes