University of Guelph
School of Engineering
ENGG*4410 VLSI Design
Course Proposal
1. Introduction
The abbreviation VLSI stands for Very Large Scale Integration, which refers to those integrated
circuits that contain more than a million transistors. The circuits designed may be generalpurpose integrated circuits such as microprocessors, digital signal processors, and memories.
They are characterized by a wide range of applications in which they can be used. They may also
be application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) which are designed for a narrow range of
applications (or even a single one). There is no doubt that our daily lives are significantly
affected by electronic engineering technology. This is true on the domestic scene, in our
professional disciplines, workplace and the leisure activities. This course deals mostly with
silicon-based VLSI, including CMOS, BiCMOS and GaAS-based technology. It will give the
students a general introduction to VLSI design, with emphasis on the design of digital integrated
circuits.
2. Objectives of the course:
Students who successfully complete this course will be able to:
 Understand the concept behind ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) design
and the different implementation approaches used in industry.
 Implement a complete digital system on silicon using state-of-the art CAD tools.
 Design digital systems for a variety of applications, including microcomputers and special
purpose computing systems,
 Understand the static and dynamic behavior of MOSFETs (Metal Oxide Semiconductor
Field Effect Transistors) and the secondary effects of the MOS transistor model.
 Understand the consequence of scaling down the dimensions of transistors and its affect
on device density, speed and power consumption.
 Design high performance digital systems with operating speed in the multiple hundred of
MHZ and even the GHz range using BiCMOS, ECL and Gallium Arsenide Design
techniques.
 Use different analysis and verification tools, implementation and synthesis methodologies
and testability techniques that will enable them to design high performance and efficient
digital systems.
 Have the necessary background to complete CMOS designs and assess which particular
design style to use on a given design, from Field Programmable Gate Arrays to full
custom design.
3. Material to be covered:
After a historical overview of digital circuit design, the concepts of hierarchical design and the
different abstraction layers are introduced. Starting from a model of the semiconductor devices,
the course will gradually progress upwards covering the inverter, the complex logic gate (NAND,
EXOR, Flip-FLOP), the functional (adder, multiplier, shifter, register) and the system module
(data-path, controller, memory) levels of abstraction. For each of these layers, the dominant
design parameters are identified and simplified models are constructed, abstracting away the
nonessential details.
Topics include: MOS transistors; CMOS logic; circuit representations; NMOS and PMOS
transistor theory; CMOS processing technology; layout design rules; process parameterization;
Circuit characterization and performance estimation; power consumption; CMOS logic
structures; Clocking strategies; Data-path design; Programmable logic arrays; VLSI physical
design; and system case studies such as a pixel graphic engine, 32 –bit CPU and self-routing
switching networks.
4. Method of presentation:
The course material will be presented in three hours of lecturing per week. There will also be a
laboratory component. The laboratory will reinforce the subject material covered in the lectures,
and will stress hardware issues (by implementing circuits of moderate complexity in Silicon). To
mimic the real design process, the students will make extensive use of design tools such as
circuit- and switch-level simulation as well as layout editing and extraction. Computer analysis is
used throughout to verify manual results, to illustrate new concepts, or to examine complex
behaviour beyond the reach of manual analysis.
Laboratory:
a) Introduction to Spice Simulation and Cadence Layout Design tools.
b) Design and simulation of a Full adder using custom design and standard cell layout approach.
c) A data-path arithmetic logic unit design.
d) A finite state machine controller design.
e) A project, which involves a circuit with more than 500 transistors that could be submitted for
fabrication through CMC.
5. Method of evaluation:
 Assignments (3):
15%
 Laboratories (4):
20%
 Project (1):
15%
 Mid-term:
15%
 Final:
35%
6. Reason for course offering:
The electronics industry has achieved a phenomenal growth over the last few decades, mainly
due to the rapid advances in integration technologies and large-scale systems design. The use of
integrated circuits in high-performance computing, telecommunications, and consumer
electronics has been growing at a very fast pace. Typically, the required computational and
information processing power of these applications is the driving force for the fast development
of this field.
The objective of this course is to help students develop in-depth analytical and design capabilities
in digital CMOS circuits and chips. The development of VLSI chips requires an interdisciplinary
team of architects, logic designers, circuit and layout designers, packaging engineers, test
engineers, and process device engineers. Also essential are the computer aids for design
automation and optimization.
Thus, the ability to understand, analyze and design such systems has become an indispensable
skill that ES&C engineers must have. With this skill they will be able to acquire more
sustainable employment and help Canada become an even stronger competitor in the global
marketplace, which is undergoing a fundamental transformation to knowledge-based industries.
The proposed course seeks to provide the ES&C students with strong hardware design
fundamentals suitable for either future graduate studies or for employment with computer-design
companies. It will serve to provide the groundwork that the students require in the digital systems
area. The laboratories and assignments will give the students genuine design experience,
introducing them to the use of CAD tools for circuit design and full custom layout.
7. Resource needs:
A. Cadence Design tools.
B. Hspice Simulation Tools.
C. Synopses synthesis and modeling design tools.
D. Unix Operating System, C compiler, Perl programming.
E. Powerfull workstations with at least 256 Mega Byte of Memory (SUN Ultra10
workstation with at least 512 Megabyte memory).
8. Library Assessment
Currently the university library lacks resources, books and journals needed in this course.
Some of the books mentioned are available locally at the University of Guelph and others are
available at the University of Waterloo.
The following library material is essential:
 Essential:
 Jan M. Rabaey, ‘Digital Integrated Circuits’, Prentice Hall, 1996, ISBN 0-13-178609-1.
 Neil Weste and Kamran Eshraghian, ‘Principles of CMOS VLSI Design’, Addison
Wesley, 1991, ISBN 0-201-08222-5.
 Sung-Mo Kang, Yusuf Leblebici ‘CMOS Digital Integrated Circuits, Analysis and
Design’, 2nd Edition, McGraw-Hill, 1999, ISBN 0-07-292507-8.
 R. Baker, H. Li and D. Boyce ‘CMOS Circuit Design, Layout and Simulation’, IEEE
Press, 1998, ISBN 0-7803-3416-7.
 K. Roy, S. Prasad, ‘Low-Power CMOS VLSI Circuit Design’, Wiley, 2000, ISBN 0-47111488-X
 Supplementary:
 Sabih Gerez, ‘Algorithms for VLSI Design Automation’, Wiley, 1999, ISBN 0-47198489-2.
 Steven Rubin, ‘Computer Aids for VLSI Design’, Addison Wesley, 1987, ISBN 0-20105824-3.
 Sedra, Smith ‘Microelectronic Circuits’, 5th Edition, Oxford, 1998, ISBN 0-19-511690-9.
 A. Bellaouar, M. Elmasry ‘Low power Digital VLSI Design’, Kluwer, 1997, ISBN XXX.
9. Contributions to learning objectives:
I. Literacy
In-class discussions will stimulate students to express their perspectives on design
techniques, trade-off issues, performance issues, and the societal impact of VLSI technology.
The course assignments, project and laboratories will require the students to demonstrate
their results in hardware and criticize other designs in terms of quality and performance
tradeoffs.
II. Numeracy
The students will develop an ability to design complete systems based on sequential and
combinatorial circuits. The students will use advanced CAD tools to implement their designs
and verify them using simulation tools such as H-spice and Synopsis.
The students will be required to fully understand why their designs function correctly from
the fundamental principles including a mathematical derivation.
III. Historical Development
Arguably, invention of the transistor was a giant leap forward for low-power microelectronics
that has remained unequaled to date, even by the virtual torrent of development it forbore. To
reach their present level of sophistication they have gone through an opulent history of
innovation and development, borrowing tools from other established knowledge domains.
Part of this course will present important historical developments that have taken place in
VLSI digital systems.
IV. Global Understanding
VLSI digital systems are being used in many applications such as communication,
manufacturing, banking, medical, military, and hence they have the potential to impact our
society in many aspects. Designing the multimillion transistor chips of today would be
unthinkable without appropriate computer design tools.
The students will be exposed to a variety of CAD tools and applications of digital systems
and will be encouraged to identify and analyze their impact on such applications as well as on
their societal impact.
V. Moral Maturity
Informed decisions in the design of digital systems are essential. The design of a VLSI digital
system is a multi-stage decision process that is based on a body of consistent procedures of
knowledge assimilation and critical judgement. It is typical that the design process will be
challenged by conflicting criteria, and hence for students to apply the appropriate design
procedures they will be required to exercise effective knowledge assimilation and moral
maturity.
VI. Aesthetic Maturity
Students will be encouraged to strive for elegant designs. They will learn that elegance is not
a property they seek in the final product only, but also in the procedures they use in the
design process. Elegant designs make teamwork more efficient, enjoyable and highly
rewarding experience. In this course students will experience how the design phases: analyze,
design, evaluate are brought together in harmony to produce elegant systems. Aesthetic
maturity is particularly important for this course, since digital systems are inherently complex
and typically designed and implemented by more than one person.
VII. Depth and Breadth of Understanding
Topics covered in this course are interdisciplinary in terms of methodologies and application
domains. For example, students will learn how design a complete digital system and optimize
it in terms of cost and speed. They will also be introduced to simulation and modeling
techniques that are used to design, and test digital systems. Moreover, basic understanding of
electronic concepts that govern the behavior of Biploar Junction Transistors and Metal Oxide
Silicon Transistors will be emphasized.
VIII.
Independence of Thought
During class discussion students will be stimulated to express their views regarding existing
VLSI digital systems and the pros and cons of the techniques used for implementing the
system. They will also be motivated to exercise independence of thought in approaching the
design exercises.
IX.
Love of Learning
The students in this course will face many challenges that will stimulate their curiosity as to
how the different components of a VLSI digital system are designed to work together in an
orchestrated manner to achieve the desired behavior of the system. They will integrate
knowledge from different domains to tackle problems of variant complexities. This will
provide them with an excellent environment to enjoy learning through simulation and
prototyping.
Course Number
Course Title
(25 characters or less)
Semester
Offering
S,F,W,
Credit Weight
(e.g. 0.5, 1.0)
0.5
05-441
VLSI Digital Design
W
Lecture
Hours
3-2
and
Lab
Calendar Description
This course introduces the students to the analysis, synthesis and design of Very Large Scale Integration digital
circuits and implementing them in silicon. Topics include: Review of MOS transistor theory. MOS design
equations; CMOS inverter characteristics and basic CMOS technology. CMOS processing technology and
CMOS process enhancements. Layout design rules and process parameterization; Performance estimation;
Switching characteristics and CMOS gate transistor sizing. Scaling of MOS transistor dimensions and
interconnect layer scaling. CMOS logic gate design including Pass transistor logic, CMOS domino logic,
Clocked CMOS logic and Pseudo nMOS logic. Design styles (Gate arrays, Standard Cell design and Full
Custom Design). Custom design tools including: circuit level simulation; timing simulation; logic level
simulation; schematic editors and design rule checkers. Physical design automation (partitioning, placement and
routing). Clocking strategies and IO structures. Design strategies; Design capture and verification. CMOS
testing principles.
Department responsible for course: School of Engineering
Indicate if applicable:
Scheduling Instructions (annually or alternate years)
Annually
Prerequisite(s)
ENGG*2450, ENGG*2410, ENGG*3450; or approval of instructor
Corequisite(s)
Concurrent Course(s)
Exclusion(s)
Course Outline:
Week Number
Topics To Be Covered
#1
Introduction to CMOS Circuits and VLSI Design
#2
MOS Design Equations and CMOS Inverter Characteristics
#3
Basic CMOS Technology and Layout Design Rules
#4
Performance Estimation Techniques and Switching Characteristics
#5
CMOS Logic Gate Design, Dynamic and Static Logic Design
#6
Chip Input and Output Circuits
#7
Semiconductor Memories
#8
Low Power CMOS Logic Circuits
#9
BiCMOS Logic Circuits and High Performance Designs
#10, #11
VLSI Design Methodologies
#12
Design For Testability