VLSI Design

Introduction
Introduction
 Well, it is a study on electronic systems, more
importantly on digital system
 Digital systems can be discrete or integrated
 Discrete systems are those which are built with
discrete components on a PCB
 Integrated systems are built on a chip (?!)
 Of course, we need extra peripherals around a chip
for a complete digital system

S. B. Sivasubramaniyan MSEC, Chennai

Digital Systems – few examples
 Almost everything around us is digital
 Few examples of digital systems are
 A Music player
 Personal computer
 A cell phone ……………….

S. B. Sivasubramaniyan MSEC, Chennai

Some points worth mentioning…

 A music player, say, for instance, consider an ipod

 ipod (ipod touch 4G) – uses an Apple A4 CPU
which is basically a single core ARM Cortex-A8
design
 Number of transistors in A4 is around 40 million
(4 crores!!!)
 Size, being few sq. cm

S. B. Sivasubramaniyan MSEC, Chennai

Some points worth mentioning…

 The system which drives this presentation has

a processor designated as intel i5-430M
 The size of the processor is exactly 81 sq.mm
 Number of transistors which make up this
processor is 382 million (38 crores 20 lakh
transistors !!!)

S. B. Sivasubramaniyan MSEC, Chennai

Some points worth mentioning…

 A cell phone also has a chip

 For example Samsung uses ARM Cortex-A8
design, discussed little earlier
 Ericsson uses ASIC (?!) version of Z-80
 All these chip has transistors confined to
incredibly small area

S. B. Sivasubramaniyan MSEC, Chennai

Come on, what am I talking about?

 This is very large scale integration, shortly

referred as VLSI
 Design is design
 In Wikipedia, design is defined as specification of an object,
manifested by an agent, intended to accomplish goals, in a
particular environment, using a set of primitive components,
satisfying a set of requirements, subject to constraints
…… understood!!!

S. B. Sivasubramaniyan MSEC, Chennai

Introduction
 VLSI stands for Very Large Scale Integration
 Design is design
 In Wikipedia, design is defined as specification of an
object, manifested by an agent, intended to accomplish
goals, in a particular environment, using a set of
primitive components, satisfying a set of requirements,
subject to constraints
…… understood!!!

S. B. Sivasubramaniyan MSEC, Chennai

Actually,
 We intend, to create something(?!) according to
certain specification here
 Something – some circuit
 Coming back to the subject matter!
 VLSI, as already said is Very Large Scale Integration
 It explicitly says that we integrate components in a
circuit on a large scale, say, very large scale!!!

S. B. Sivasubramaniyan MSEC, Chennai

So,
 Very Large Scale, here, is just a measure of
the integration
 Knowingly, when we say, very large scale,
here we mean, there is large scale, small
scale integration, … medium scale
integration in the literature

S. B. Sivasubramaniyan MSEC, Chennai

Then,
 Integration is something confining the circuit
components together
 Now, take the comparison
 Small scale – less number of components
 Medium scale – little more
 Large scale – more, more
 Very Large scale – more, more, more…

S. B. Sivasubramaniyan MSEC, Chennai

I see!
 This confined circuit is referred to as
Integrated Circuit or IC

S. B. Sivasubramaniyan MSEC, Chennai

O.K. now, what component is that?

 Good question at this juncture, I would say

 The component which we talk here, is

 The MOSFET

S. B. Sivasubramaniyan MSEC, Chennai

So,
 Very Large Scale means more components,
as said, and that means more number of
MOSFETs?

S. B. Sivasubramaniyan MSEC, Chennai

It is quite logical, but
 Integration is actually measured by something called as
gate equivalent or simply gate
 This gate actually realizes the function, F = (A.B)’
 As seen, the function is a two input NAND
 For example, when we refer a 100 k gate IC, the IC
contains the equivalent of 100,000 two input NAND gates
 As a passing reference, you can take that a 2 input NAND
gate has 4 transistors (?!)

S. B. Sivasubramaniyan MSEC, Chennai

Defining ICs,
 The circuit, which houses all the
components constituting a system, on a
single piece of semi-conductor substrate, is
referred to as an Integrated Circuit (IC)
 It is also referred by various names such as
chip, microchip, microcircuit, silicon chip
etc.
S. B. Sivasubramaniyan MSEC, Chennai
Passing Reference
 Substrate usually measures few millimeters to over an
inch on its side
 Chip is usually fabricated in groups (few 100s) on a thin
semiconductor material called wafer

 Chip is also referred to as a die, because the process

involved in separating individual chip from the wafer is
called as dicing

S. B. Sivasubramaniyan MSEC, Chennai

Passing Reference – contd.
 Early developments of Integrated circuit appeared in
1949, when a German Engineer Werner Jacobi filed a
patent for an integrated circuit like semiconductor
amplifying device.
 He designed his circuit with 5 transistors on a common
substrate in a 2 stage amplifier arrangement

S. B. Sivasubramaniyan MSEC, Chennai

Passing Reference – contd.
 A British Radar Scientist, Geoffrey W. A. Dummer
demonstrated the idea of IC during a Symposium on
Progress in Quality Electronic Components in 1952
 Dummer failed in his attempts to build such a circuit in
1956

S. B. Sivasubramaniyan MSEC, Chennai

First successful attempt
 Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments, in 1958 independently
developed the first Integrated circuit
 He designed an Oscillator which had a transistor and
resistor, capacitor and diodes built on the same material
 The chip measured roughly 0.24 square cm

S. B. Sivasubramaniyan MSEC, Chennai

Also,
 During that time Robert Noyce, co-founder of Fairchild
Semiconductor, developed his own version of Integrated
circuit
 Robert Noyce overcame many of the problems associated
with Kilby’s chip
 One of the most important difference being Noyce built the
transistor with silicon while Kilby attempted the same with
germanium
 Robert Noyce, nick-named “the Mayor of Silicon Valley” also
co-founded Intel

S. B. Sivasubramaniyan MSEC, Chennai