Aim
Digital IC Design is the first, out of four, courses in digital VLSI design, see www.tde.lth.se/ugradcourses/ugradcourses.html. The course aims to give a thorough understanding for digital integrated circuit design. Increasing complexity and high requirements on performance in form of throughput and low power consumption will increase the expectations from the hardware designer. To understand both the possibilities and the limitations is important for both full custom designers and high level designers. The course will focus on CMOS design.

Knowledge and understanding
For a passing grade the student must

• be able to describe the parameters that affect the physical characteristics in the transistor or a digital circuit regarding area, power consumption and delays,

• be able to analyze digital circuits in CMOS technologies based on a given topology, a given function, a layout or a net of interconnecting wires,

• be able to describe how arithmetic and combinational blocks are designed, based on elementary functions as well as apply these blocs in sequential nets,

• be able to use basic tools for layout, schematics and simulation for digital ASIC-design.

Skills and abilities
For a passing grade the student must

• from a given problem, be able to apply his or her knowledge to analyze, simulate and design digital circuits in a computer based environment.

Judgement and approach
For a passing grade the student must

• be able to communicate results from laboratory experiments orally,

• have acquired knowledge enough to be able to discuss ideas, problems and solutions with competent digital designers, and

• be able to sort out important information independently, from an extensive material, such as a textbook and a manual.

Contents
The course content includes the MOS transistor and its physical characteristics. Models for the function are derived. Special attention is paid on those parameters that we can modify as a circuit designer. A survey over different families for logical functions founded on MOS transistors is given. Sizing of those are an important part. Wire characteristics are taken into consideration. Both combinational and sequential design is important in the course. Performances such as power consumption, silicon area and speed, are analyzed in all parts of the course.

Literature
Rabaey J M, Chandrakasan A, Nicolic B: Digital Integrated Circuits: A Design Perspective,
Prentice Hall International Editions, ISBN 9780130909961. http://infopad.eecs.berkeley.edu/~icdesign
Additional material will be found at http://www.eit.lth.se/course/eti130

Code: 0104. Name: Examination.
Higher education credits: 4,5. Grading scale: TH. Assessment: Approved on written examination.

Code: 0204. Name: Laboratory Works.
Higher education credits: 1,5. Grading scale: UG. Assessment: Approved on three laboratory works.