Lecture 1:
Introduction to VLSI Design
Mark McDermott
Electrical and Computer Engineering
The University of Texas at Austin
VLSI-1 Class Notes
Why is VLSI design still fun?
§ Get to work on crazy new applications of IC technology.
§ For example: CMOS Bio-Sensors
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General Idea of the Biosensor
Both fluorescence and voltammetry analysis require very small currents sensing
Florescence Detection Voltammetry Detection
• 0
-
Redox Label
0
.
5
•Fx(t) V
•iEL(
t)
•iph(t)
NOTE 1: Post-processing of CMOS is a another task
NOTE 2: Optimizations/generation of probes and amplicons is another task
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Bio-sensor die plot
DACs
Test Logic
Digital Sensor Digital
Filter Array Filter
Bypass Control
Capacitors Logic
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Bio-sensing element
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Digital to Analog Converters
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Digital control block
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What Will You Learn in this course?
§ Economics
§ How integrated circuits really work
§ How do you design chips with 100’s of millions of transistors
– Understand what a “design flow” is
– Use of commercial design automation tools to speed up the design process
– Ways of managing the complexity using hierarchical design methods
– Use integrated circuit cells as building blocks (widgets)
§ Understand design issues at the layout, transistor, logic and
register-transfer levels
§ Concept of robustness
– Making sure the designs are correct
– Making the chips testable after manufacturing
§ Effects of technology scaling, reducing power consumption, etc.
§ Identifying performance bottlenecks and ways of speeding up
circuits
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Learning General Principles
§ Chip design involves simultaneous multi-metric optimization,
tradeoffs, etc.
§ Need the ability to work as part of a team
§ Technology changes fast, so it is important to understand the
general principles which would span technology generations
§ Systems are implemented using building blocks (which may be
technology-specific)
§ There is lots of work in this course, but you will learn a lot too!!
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Course Information
§ Class meets Tue/Thu, 14:00–15:30, ECJ 1.318
– Lab & TA hours posted on the class web site
§ Instructor: Mark McDermott
– Office: EER 5.826 (512) 471-3253
• Email:
[email protected] – Office hours:
• Tue/Thu: 12:00 - 13:30
• Mon/Wed: 9:00 - 11:00
• And by appointment.
§ Course Web Pages:
– http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~mcdermot/ee460r_fall_2018.htm
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Course Information (cont)
§ Prerequisites: A working knowledge of digital logic design
(EE316), fundamentals of electronic circuits (EE438) is required.
§ Textbook: Weste and Harris, CMOS VLSI Design: A Circuits and
Systems Perspective, Addison Wesley/Pearson, 4th Edition, 2011
§ Lectures and discussion in class will cover basics of course
§ Homework, Laboratory exercises will help you gain a deep
understanding of the subject
§ Acknowledgements
– Jacob Abraham (UT)
– Gian Gerosa (Intel)
– Steve Sullivan (Apple)
– Kevin Nowka (IBM)
– Michael Orshansky (UT)
– Raghuram Tupuri
– Adnan Aziz
– David Harris (HMC)
– Neil Weste
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Work required by this course
§ Lectures
– Read sections in text and slides before class
§ Homework problems
– 8 homework assignments
§ Laboratory exercises
– Three major exercises dealing with various aspects of VLSI design
– Complete each section before the deadline
§ Project (EE 382M)
– Your opportunity to design a chip of interest to you
– Design could be completed to the point where it could be fabricated by
following process covered this course
§ This course involves a large amount of work throughout the
semester. Pace yourself.
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Exams and Grading
§ Two exams, in class, open book and notes which means the
exams are hard
– Oct 11th and Nov 8th
§ Final Exam (EE460R only)
– Date: TBD
§ Grading
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Collaboration is good! Cheating is not!
§ Collaboration is good!
– Discussing issues with your classmates is a good way to learn and a study
group is a very effective learning tool. Feel free to discuss homework,
laboratory exercises with classmates, TAs and the instructors
– Helping each other learn is particularly satisfying
– But.... Individual assignments and exams must be done by individuals
§ Cheating is a serious breach of trust and will not be tolerated
– If ever in doubt, don’t do it or ask me immediately for a clarification
• See University Policies for further detail
– Take some free advice from me: Don’t cheat, its not worth it.
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VLSI Design - The Big Picture
§ Today we are generally designing VLSI systems for a particular
embedded application:
– Need to decompose design into sub-functions
– Need to integrate the various sub-functions into a System-on-a-Chip
– Guess what? Also need to write 1 million lines of code to make your system
work.
§ What do you do with a billion transistors?
– The real question is how do you test a billion transistors to make sure they
were manufactured correctly?
– How do you co-verify a million lines of software and the billion transistors?
§ What is the difference between Test, Verification and Validation?
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Types of IC Designs
§ IC Designs can be Analog or Digital or both!!
§ Digital designs can be one of three groups
– Full Custom
• Every transistor designed and laid out by hand
– ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits)
• Designs synthesized automatically from a high-level language description
– Semi-Custom or structured custom
• Mixture of custom and synthesized modules
§ Analog designs are generally full custom
– Digitally assisted Analog is a combination of full custom and ASIC
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Laboratory Exercises
§ Lab Exercise 1
– Design, layout and evaluation of a register file
• Use Cadence layout software, HSpice simulation
§ Lab Exercise 2
– Design and evaluation of an ALU with standard cell libraries
• Cadence schematic editor, Synopsys static timing analysis, Cadence place-and-
route
§ Lab Exercise 3
– RTL/HDL level design and evaluation of bus controller
• Synopsys simulation, Synopsys synthesis, Cadence place-and-route
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Laboratory Exercises
Designer Tasks Tools
Define Overall Chip
Text Editor
Architect C/RTL Model
C Compiler
Initial Floorplan
Behavioral Simulation RTL Simulator Lab 3
Logic Logic Simulation Synthesis Tools
Designer Timing Analyzer
Synthesis
Datapath Schematics Power Estimator
Cell Libraries
Circuit Circuit Schematics Schematic Editor Lab 2
Designer Circuit Simulation Circuit Simulator
Router
Megacell Blocks
Layout and Floorplan Lab 1
Physical Place/Route Tools
Place and Route
Designer Physical Design
Parasitics Extraction and Evaluation
DRC/LVS/ERC Tools
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Purpose of Lab Exercises
§ Familiarity with layout, circuit simulation, timing
§ Learn schematic design, timing optimization
§ Learn register-transfer-level (RTL) design, system simulation, logic
synthesis and place-and-route using mix of tools from different
vendors that mirrors industry standards
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Laboratory Design Tools
§ We will us commercial CAD tools
– Cadence, Synopsys, etc.
§ Commercial software is powerful, but very complex
– Designers sent to long training classes
– Students will benefit from using the software, but we don’t have the luxury
of long training
– TAs have experience with the software
§ Start work early in the lab
– Plan designs carefully and save your work frequently.
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Caveats about Design Tools
§ Never take anything on blind faith. Work it out -- make sure it works. Many
clever circuits that are published either dont work or are very sensitive to
certain conditions. Be careful.
§ There are NO RIGHT answers, and there are no PERFECT circuits. Everything
has its warts. A good circuit simply has the right set of warts to meet the
constraints of the problem.
§ Simulation is NO substitute for thinking. Simulators can make your job much
easier, but it also can make it incredibly harder. Like all tools it helps only if
you use it well, AND that requires thinking. Work it out on paper and then let
the simulator validate it.
DO NOT BECOME a SLAVE to the TOOLS.
Tools can and will tell you wrong answers.
Courtesy of Mark Horowitz
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Back to the beginning: a little history lesson….
VLSI-1 Class Notes
A Brief History of the Transistor
§ Some of the events which led to the microprocessor
§ Photographs in the following are from “State of the Art: A
photographic history of the integrated circuit”, Stan Augarten,
Ticknor & Fields, 1983.
– They can also be viewed on the Smithsonian web site
http://smithsonianchips.si.edu/
– Another web site http://www.pbs.org/transistor/
§ Another collection of interesting chip photos and other things.
– http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/creatures/pages/chili.html
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Early Ideas Leading to the Transistor
§ J. W. Lilienfeld’s patents
1930: “Method and apparatus for 1933: “Device for controlling
controlling electric currents”, U.S. electric current”, U. S. Patent
Patent 1,745,175 1,900,018
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Key Developments at Bell Labs
§ 1940: Ohl develops the PN Junction
§ 1945: Shockley's laboratory established
§ 1947: Bardeen and Brattain create point contact transistor (U.S.
Patent 2,524,035)
Diagram from patent application
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Developments at Bell Labs, Cont’d
§ 1951: Shockley develops a junction transistor manufacturable in
quantity (U.S. Patent 2,623,105)
Diagram from patent application
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1950s – Silicon Valley
§ 1950s: Shockley in Silicon Valley
§ 1955: Noyce joins Shockley Laboratories
§ 1954: The first transistor radio
§ 1957: Noyce leaves Shockley Labs to form Fairchild with Jean
Hoerni and Gordon Moore
§ 1958: Hoerni invents technique for diffusing impurities into Si to
build planar transistors using a SiO2 insulator
§ 1959: Noyce develops first true IC using planar transistors, back-
to-back PN junctions for isolation, diode-isolated Si resistors and
SiO2 insulation with evaporated metal wiring on top
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The Integrated Circuit (IC)
§ 1959: Jack Kilby, working at TI, dreams up the idea of a
monolithic “integrated circuit”
– Components connected by hand-soldered wires and isolated by “shaping”,
PN-diodes used as resistors (U.S. Patent 3,138,743)
Diagram from patent application
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ICs, Cont’d
§ 1961: TI and Fairchild introduce the first logic ICs ($50 in quantity)
§ 1962: RCA develops the first MOS transistor
Fairchild bipolar RTL Flip-Flop RCA 16-transistor MOSFET IC
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Computer-Aided Design (CAD)
§ 1967: Fairchild develops the “Micromosaic” IC using CAD
– Final Al layer of interconnect could be customized for different applications
§ 1968: Noyce, Moore leave Fairchild, start Intel
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Static and Dynamic RAMs
§ 1970: Fairchild introduces the 4100, 256-bit Static RAM
§ 1970: Intel starts selling a1K-bit Dynamic RAM, the 1103
Fairchild 4100 256-bit SRAM Intel 1103 1K-bit DRAM
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The Microprocessor!
§ 1971: Intel introduces the first microprocessor, the 4004 (originally
designed as a special circuit for a customer)
§ 1975: Mark McDermott designs and fabricates his first chip.
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Now, a brief review before we dive into the fun
stuff….
VLSI-1 Class Notes
Conductivity in Silicon Lattice
§ At temperatures close to 0 K, electrons in outermost shell are
tightly bound (insulator)
§ At higher temps., (300 K), some electrons have thermal energy
to break covalent bonds
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Conductivity in Semiconductors
§ Pure Silicon may be mixed with impurities to change the number
of available carriers
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Dopants
§ Silicon is a semiconductor
§ Pure silicon has no free carriers and conducts poorly
§ Adding dopants increases the conductivity
§ Group V: extra electron (n-type)
§ Group III: missing electron, called hole (p-type)
Si Si Si Si Si Si
- +
+ -
Si As Si Si B Si
Si Si Si Si Si Si
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p-n Junctions
§ A junction between p-type and n-type semiconductor forms a
diode.
§ Current flows only in one direction
p-type n-type
anode cathode
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nMOS Transistor
§ Four terminals: gate, source, drain, body
§ Gate – oxide – body stack looks like a capacitor
– Gate and body are conductors
– SiO2 (oxide) is a very good insulator
– Called metal – oxide – semiconductor (MOS) capacitor
– Even though the gate is no longer made of metal
• Not true for 45nm and beyond.
Source Gate Drain
Polysilicon
SiO2
n+ n+
p bulk Si
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nMOS Operation
§ Body is commonly tied to ground (0 V)
§ When the gate is at a low voltage:
– P-type body is at low voltage
– Source-body and drain-body diodes are OFF
– No current flows, transistor is OFF
Source Gate Drain
Polysilicon
SiO2
0
n+ n+
S D
p bulk Si
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nMOS Operation (cont)
§ When the gate is at a high voltage:
– Positive charge on gate of MOS capacitor
– Negative charge attracted to body
– Inverts a channel under gate to n-type
– Now current can flow through n-type silicon from source through channel to
drain, transistor is ON
Source Gate Drain
Polysilicon
SiO2
0
n+ n+
S D
p bulk Si
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pMOS Transistor
§ Similar, but doping and voltages reversed
– Body tied to high voltage (VDD)
– Gate low: transistor ON
– Gate high: transistor OFF
– Bubble indicates inverted behavior
Source Gate Drain
Polysilicon
SiO2
p+ p+
n bulk Si
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Power Supply Voltage
§ In 1970s VDD = 12-18V for Metal Gate CMOS
§ In 1980s, VDD = 5V
§ VDD has decreased in modern processes
– High VDD would damage modern tiny transistors
– Lower VDD saves power
§ VDD = 3.3, 2.5, 1.8, 1.5, 1.2, 1.0, 0.8, 0.7, 0.6
§ GND = 0 V
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Transistors as Switches
§ We can view MOS transistors as electrically controlled switches
§ Voltage at gate controls path from source to drain
g=0 g=1
d d d
nMOS g OFF
ON
s s s
d d d
pMOS g OFF
ON
s s s
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CMOS Inverter
A Y VDD
0
1
A Y
A Y
GND
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CMOS Inverter
A Y VDD
0
1 0 OFF
A=1 Y=0
ON
A Y
GND
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CMOS Inverter
A Y VDD
0 1
1 0 ON
A=0 Y=1
OFF
A Y
GND
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CMOS NAND Gate
A B Y
0 0
0 1 Y
1 0 A
1 1
B
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CMOS NAND Gate
A B Y
0 0 1 ON ON
0 1 Y=1
A=0
1 0 OFF
1 1 B=0
OFF
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CMOS NAND Gate
A B Y
0 0 1 OFF ON
0 1 1 Y=1
A=0
1 0 OFF
1 1 B=1
ON
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CMOS NAND Gate
A B Y
0 0 1 ON OFF
0 1 1 Y=1
A=1
1 0 1 ON
1 1 B=0
OFF
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CMOS NAND Gate
A B Y
0 0 1 OFF OFF
0 1 1 Y=0
A=1
1 0 1 ON
1 1 0 B=1
ON
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CMOS NOR Gate
A B Y
0 0 1 A
0 1 0
1 0 0 B
1 1 0 Y
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3-input NAND Gate
§ Y pulls low if ALL inputs are 1
§ Y pulls high if ANY input is 0
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3-input NAND Gate
§ Y pulls low if ALL inputs are 1
§ Y pulls high if ANY input is 0
Y
A
B
C
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Characteristics of CMOS Gates
§ In general, when the circuit is stable
– There is a path from one supply (VSS or VDD) to the output (low static
power dissipation)
– There is NEVER a path from one supply to another
§ There is a momentary drain of current when a gate switches from
one state to the other
– Dynamic power dissipation
§ If a node has no path to power or ground, the previous value
retained due to the capacitance of the node.
– Dont count on it though. Leakage is so bad in DSM that the charge will be
lost.
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Complementary Switch (Transmission Gate)
§ Combine n- and p-channel switches in parallel to get a switch
which passes both 1 and 0 well
S S
A B A B
S S
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Multiplexer
§ Two-input MUX using only switches
A
A B S S Z
X 0 0 1 0
B
X 1 0 1 1
S Z
0 X 1 0 0
A
1 X 1 0 1
B
X: dont care
S
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Schematic Vs. Physical Layout
§ In schematic layout, lines drawn between device terminals
represent connections
– Any non-planar situation is dealt with by crossing lines
– Provides more information than logic level (sizes of transistors, etc.)
§ Physical layout captures interaction between layers
– includes diffusion, polysilicon, metal (many layers of metal), vias (contacts)
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Stick Diagram
§ Intermediate representation between the schematic level and
the mask level
§ Gives topological information (identifies different layers and their
relationship)
– Assumes that wires have no width
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Basic Layers in CMOS
When two layers of the same material (i.e., on the same layer) touch or
cross, they are connected and belong to the same electrical node
When Polysilicon crosses Diffusion (N or P), an N or P transistor is formed
There is no diffusion underneath the poly, but the diffusion must be drawn
connecting the source and the drain
The self-aligned gate is automatically formed during fabrication
When a Metal line needs to be
connected to a metal line on
another layer, or to one of the
other three conductors, a contact
cut (via) is required
8/26/18 VLSI-1 Class Notes 61
