Market-Driven Design Project in Introductory VLSI Design

Abstract

The complexity of today’s CMOS integrated circuits is truly astounding, with hundreds of millions of transistors performing digital functions, RF circuits operating in the 1 to 10 GHz range, and analog circuits performing very accurate calculations. At the same time, the market pressures are enormous with customers expecting high performance at low cost and low power and competitors rapidly introducing new chips. In this environment, the semiconductor industry requires knowledgeable, capable engineers with expertise in the VLSI area.

This paper addresses the educational issue of introducing seniorlevel and beginning graduate students in electrical engineering to the area of VLSI design. The case study is EE 482 Introduction to VLSI Design taught in the Electrical Engineering Department, College of Engineering and Technology at Northern Arizona University (NAU). The design project is a market-driven project, which rewards early completion of assignments in connection with learning the fundamental concepts of VLSI.