• Objectives

– History and road map of integrated circuits

– Application specific integrated circuits
– Design flow and tasks
– Electric design automation tools
– ASIC project MSDAP
• In 1951 William Shockley developed the world first
junction transistor.
• One year later Geoffrey W. A. Dummer published the
concept of the integrated circuits (IC).
• In 1958 Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments suggested the
integration of circuit elements such as resistors,
capacitors, and transistors into a single chip made of the
same material.
• By September 12th of the same year, Kilby had built a
simple oscillator IC with five integrated components. This
marked the beginning of the modern IC industry.
• In 2000, the importance of the IC was recognized when
Kilby shared the Nobel Prize in physics with Zhores I.
Alferov and Herbert Kroemer. Kilby was cited by the
Nobel committee “for his part in the invention of the
integrated circuit”.
• Robert Norton Noyce is also credited for
the invention of the integrated circuits. In
1957 Noyce and several other engineers
founded Fairchild Semiconductor, where
in 1959 he developed the integrated
circuit.
• In 1968 Noyce and his two Fairchild
colleagues founded Intel, with Noyce as
president and chief executive officer.
• The understanding of semiconductor physics as well as
twentieth century technological advancements in
semiconductor device fabrication contribute to the rapid
and continuous development of modern IC industry.
– The integration of large numbers of semiconductor
transistors into a small silicon chip was an enormous
improvement over the manually assembled circuits, which
used discrete electronic components.
• The integrated circuits’ mass production capability,
reliability, and computer-aided design tools propelled the
rapid adoption of ICs in replacing designs using discrete
transistors.
• The advantages of ICs over discrete circuits are primarily
cost and performance.
– Cost is low because the chips, with all of their components,
are printed via a photolithography process, and millions of
transistors can be manufactured and connected at the same
time.
• Smaller feature size leads to a high performance because
the components switch quicker and consume less power,
due to the fact that the components are small and close
together
• Among the most advanced integrated circuits are the
microprocessors, which control everything from
computers and cellular phones to digital microwave
ovens.
• In the last decade, 32- and 64-bit microprocessors with
cache memory, floating-point arithmetic units, and multi-
million transistors on a single piece of silicon have been
made popular, marking the era of very large-scale
integration (VLSI).
• Pentium 4 microprocessor
• The speed and power consumption gains achieved by
narrowing feature size are apparent in almost all
applications.
• The state-of-the-art technology for the massive
production has reached feature sizes as fine as 22nm and
below (ITRS 2009).
• Moore's law: the number of components per IC doubles
every year.
– Moore’s law was later amended to: the number of
components per IC doubles every 18 months.
• Historical development of ICs during the period from
1970 to 2002
• International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors,
known throughout the world as the ITRS, collects and
analyses the information from major IC companies, and
provides a roadmap of technology milestone targets for
the years to come.

• The International Technology

Roadmap for Semiconductors is
sponsored by five leading chip
manufacturing regions in the
world: Europe, Japan, Korea,
Taiwan, and the United States.
• The objective of the ITRS is to ensure cost-effective
advancements in the performance of the integrated
circuits and the products that employ such devices,
thereby continuing the health and success of this industry.
• Through the cooperative efforts of the global chip
manufacturers and equipment suppliers, research
communities, and consortia, the roadmap teams identify
critical challenges, encourage innovative solutions, and
welcome participation from the semiconductor
community.
• Road map is the most valuable source based on which we
plan, explore and “guess” the future of IC industry.
• Roadmap of product half-pitch and gate length (ITRS
2009)
• Roadmap versus actual trend numbers (DRAM Product
Trend Example)
• DRAM introduction product generations and chip size
model
• According to the type of application, development and
manufacturing process, and behavioral criteria, ASICs can be
classified as:
– Full-custom ASICs: Some or all of the logic cells, circuits and
layouts are specifically designed for an intended application.
– Semi-custom ASICs: All of the logic cells are pre-designed and
required interconnects for specific functions are done by
customizing a few mask layers.
– Non-custom ASICs: All logic cells and interconnecting wire
segments are pre-designed. The chip is even packaged before
any specific application. Only the switches connecting the wire
segments need to be turned on (or off) according to the
application logic.
• Of all aspects of an ASIC project, design flow places the
heaviest demand on a design engineer and requires the
closest teamwork between the customer and provider.
• Design flow provides the sequence of tasks and the
interplay among them.
• The following figure shows a simplified design flow that
demonstrates the basic design tasks and the process.
• Computer-aided-design (CAD) uses a wide range of
computer-based tools to assist engineers, architects and
other design professionals in their design activities.
• CAD is used throughout the engineering process from
conceptual design to layout, i.e., through designing
methods to the detailed engineering and analysis of
components.
• It is impossible today to design design an IC without
using CAD tools.
• Cadence Virtuoso platform and its functional components
• Cadence Encounter Digital IC Design Platform
• The comprehensive synthesis solution
• Synopsys Innovator
• The best way to learn ASIC design is to design a “real”
ASIC chip.
• By going through each task in the entire design flow one
not only obtains the knowledge of individual tasks, but
also understands the interplay among them.
• Most existing text books/courses mainly focus on the
logic functions, circuit components, system control,
interface and synthesis method, and treat them as
separated subjects.
• The subjects of properly defining system settings and
connecting individual design tasks have not received
adequate attention.
• This book/class presents a “real” ASIC design project
(Mini Stereo Digital Signal Processor: MSDSP) and
guides the reader/student though the whole design process
(Appendix A).
• The project is to design an ASIC chip which implements
an IRF filter used in a hearing-aid device.
– The device is intended to be disposable, and therefore it
needs to be low power and inexpensive at the same time.
• Designers have the opportunity to “understand” a custom
specific requirement, which usually posts a challenge for
many ASIC designers.
• This project requests the designer to develop a complete
specification based on an application about which
information is usually “incomplete” from a VLSI design
perspective.
• Commonly, most applications are presented with
application field terminologies, and terms such as clock
rate, supply voltage, and interface protocol are usually not
used.
• This ASIC project offers a special value for readers to
mimic a relatively real design environment.
• At the end of the semester, students need to complete the
design and hand in a project report.
• Knowledge of digital circuit and entry level VLSI design.
• Knowledge of hardware description language VHDL.
• The class focus on the system level design and design
flow.
• This class uses
– Synopsis synthesis tool to automatically transfer the RTL
level VHDL design into the logic circuits.
– Cadence layout tool for the physical design.
• In this chapter we have presented the invention of the
integrated circuit (IC) and its history.
• As pointed out, the roadmap from ITRS will be a major
information source predicting VLSI future development
trend.
• Capability of using modern CAD tools is a necessary skill
for any digital circuit designer.
• In the following chapter, we shall explore VLSI design
perspective and develop its design flow.
1. Write a survey of digital IC design CAD tools from major
EDA companies.
2. Explain the difference between the digital, analog, and mixed
signal circuits. Give an example of each type.
3. What is VHDL and give an example. Explain where a
designer uses VHDL?
4. Write a VHDL code of a 2-bit adder in both structure and
behavior manner.
5. What are the concerns of after Moore’s Law?
6. What is an IP in digital system design?
7. Study the roadmap and identify the trend of digital ICs in the
next five years.