System level integrated circuit design

• Explain the functionality and design challenges of an advanced integrated circuit block.
• Identify the current state-of-the-art of an integrated circuit block with a literature research and present it.
• Analyse and derive the requirements for the integrated circuit block together with the IC design team.
• Select the most adequate topology of an integrated circuit block according to the specifications.
• Implement an integrated circuit block with a behavioural language.
• Design and simulate an integrated circuit block at a transistor level as part of a full integrated circuit.
• Layout the designed integrated circuit block and extract the parasitics.
• Evaluate the performance of the designed integrated circuit block with extracted parasitics across global and local variations.
• Work as part of a team designing a full integrated circuit.
• Document the work in a written report.

The course is conducted as a project where the students work as a team of integrated circuit designers that have a common task of designing a full integrated circuit (IC).

The full IC contains several advanced IC blocks and each of the students is individually responsible for the design of one of them. The students will perform a state of the art literature search of their block, decide on an adequate circuit topology for the given specifications, design their block on schematic level, simulate it across global and local variations, layout the circuit, extract the parasitics, verify its post-extraction performance and compare it to state of the art.

The students have to collaborate with the team to find the specifications for their blocks and ensure that the blocks can interface each other.

During the project, there will be status and review meeting where the students can update the team, share the challenges they are facing and help each other.

There will be lectures given on advanced integrated circuit blocks, chip architecture and other selected topics.

31631/34630/31632/34655/31633/34656, or equivalent courses that cover all the material from 31631/34630, 31632/34655 and 31633/34656.

Individual project work, collaboration work, status and review meetings and lectures.