INTRODUCTION TO VLSI

Raveesh S, Dept of ECE, SIT,Tumkur

Transistor
The First Transistor -1947 William Shockley, John Bardeen, Walter Brattain of Bell Laboratories

Planar Transistor

Field Effect Transistor

In 1959 M. M. John Atalla and Dawon Kahng of Fairchild at Bell Labs achieved the first successful insulated-gate field-effect transistor (FET)

Chip classification according to number of active elements and minimal feature size:

Why VLSI?
Integration improves the design
Lower parasitics = higher speed Lower power consumption Physically smaller

Integration reduces manufacturing cost - (almost) no manual assembly

VLSI Applications
VLSI is an implementation technology for electronic circuitry - analogue or digital It is concerned with forming a pattern of interconnected switches and gates on the surface of a crystal of semiconductor Microprocessors

Personal computers Microcontrollers

VLSI Applications
Memory - DRAM / SRAM Special Purpose Processors - ASICS (CD players, DSP applications) Optical Switches Has made highly sophisticated control systems mass-producable and therefore cheap

Moores Law
Gordon Moore: co-founder of Intel In 1965 Predicted that the number of transistors per chip would grow exponentially (double every 18 months)

Moores Law

Moores Law

Moores Law

ITRS
International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS)
ITRS, is the fifteen-year assessment of the semiconductor industrys future technology requirements. These future needs drive present-day strategies for world-wide research and development among manufacturers research facilities, universities, and national labs.

ITRS Reports - 2000-2010

http://www.itrs.net/home.html In 90s it was known as NTRS (International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors )

ITRS Interconnect Predictions

What is a Silicon Chip?

A pattern of interconnected switches and gates on the surface of a crystal of semiconductor (typically Si)

These switches and gates are made of

areas of n-type silicon areas of p-type silicon areas of insulator lines of conductor (interconnects) joining areas together Aluminium, Copper, Titanium, Molybdenum, polysilicon, tungsten

Connections from the chip to the outside world are made around the edge of the chip to facilitate connections to other devices

Silicon Wafer

VLSI - Processors
Millions of Transistors Need computers to Verify layout Circuit performance Process design, etc.

Design Methodology
Full Custom Design
Direct control of layout and device parameters Longer design operation Faster Operation More Dense

Standard cell Design

Easier to implement Limited cell library selections

Design Methodology
Gate Array or Programmable Logic array Design Fastest design turn around Reduced performance

Stages in The CAD process

Levels of Abstaction

CAD TOOLS
Cadence, Synopsys, Mentor Graphics are the major (Electronic Design Automation) EDA software tool vendors. Xilinx, Altera, Actel holds the major market share in FPGA/CPLD. Tanner, Microwind.

Assignment-1
Q1.Compare and contrast the following technologies
BJT and CMOS

Q2.WriteshortnotesonITRS

TEXT Books:
Introduction to VLSI Circuits and Systems - John P Uyemura, John Wiley 2002 Basic VLSI Design Douglas A. Pucknell & Kamran Eshraghian, PHI 3rd Edition (Original Edition 1994), 2005

REFERENCE Books:
Principles of CMOS VLSI DesignNeil H. E. Weste and Kamran Eshraghian, 2nd edition, AddisonWesley, 1993. CMOS Digital Integrated circuits Sung-Mo Kang, Yusuf Leblebici, Third edition, TMH