IC-EMC Training

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TEACHING CMOS CIRCUIT DESIGN IN NANOSCALE
TECHNOLOGIES USING MICROWIND
Syed Mahfuzul Aziz School of Electrical
Information Engineering University of South
Australia Australia e-mail mahfuz.aziz_at_unisa.edu.
au
Etienne Sicard Sonia Ben Dhia Department of
Electrical Computer Engineering INSA
University of Toulouse France e-mail
etienne.sicard_at_insa-toulouse.fr sonia.bendhia_at_ins
a-toulouse.fr
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SUMMARY

• CONTEXT
• EDUCATIONAL NEEDS
• MICROWIND
• 4. EVALUATION
• 5. PRESPECTIVES
• 7. CONCLUSION

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CONTEXT
NANO-CMOS MORE AND MORE COMPLEX
2000
0.18 µm
Devices
3 nMOS, 3 pMOS
Interconnects
Frequency
500 MHz
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CONTEXT
NANO-CMOS TEACHING CHALLENGE
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CONTEXT
NANO-CMOS TEACHING CHALLENGE
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CONTEXT
NANO-CMOS COMPLEXITY CHALLENGE
Teaching cell design still necessary ?
Complexity (Millions transistors)
Technology always ahead
1000
System design
IP design
100
Logic design
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1
0.1
1995
1998
2001
2004
2007
2010
2013
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EDUCATIONAL NEEDS
TEACHING NANO-CMOS TRENDS

• The commercial chip design tools available today
  are very powerful
• However, these tools are highly complex and need
  long time to learn.
• Teaching hours in Nano-CMOS are decreased
• Physics of semiconductors are exploding in
  complexity (100-1000 parameters in MOS models)
• Student and engineer diversity must be
  considered. Gaps in the background knowledge must
  be addressed

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EDUCATIONAL NEEDS
TEACHING NANO-CMOS NEEDS

• Tools should be used by large number of students
  at undergraduate level
• Design tools should provide intuitive design,
  simulation and visualization environments
• Design tools should be easily accessible. Most of
  the work is done out of regular teaching hours
  (e-learning, project-based..)
• Target course and practical training duration 15
  H

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MICROWIND
COURSE CONTENTS (1-2 days)

• Technology scale down, where we come from, where
  we are (45 nm), where we go..
• A tutorial on MOS devices, based on problem-based
  learning
• The design of inverters, and a simple ring
  oscillator, and a small student contest.
• The design of basic logic gates introducing
  interconnect design, compact design strategies,
  and impact on switching speed and power
  consumption.
• The design of analog blocs introducing
  amplification, voltage reference, addition of
  analog signals, and mixed-signal blocs
• A design project, e.g. converter, processing
  unit, OpAmp, radio-frequency block, etc..

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MICROWIND
INTRODUCTION THE TOOL

• User-friendly and intuitive design tool for
  educational use.
• The student draws the masks of the circuit layout
  and performs analog simulation
• The tool displays the layout in 2D, static 3D and
  animated 3D

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MICROWIND

• MOS DEVICE
• Traditional teaching in-depth explanation of
  the potentials, fields, threshold voltage, and
  eventually the expression of the current Ids
• Our approach step-by-step illustration of the
  most important relationships between layout and
  performance.
• Design of the MOS
• I/V Simulation
• 2D view
• Time domain analysis

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MICROWIND

• BASIC GATE DESIGN
• Illustration of the most important relationships
  between layout and performance.
• Design of pMOS
• Design of inverters
• Design of a VCO
• Try to optimize the VCO for highest possible
  speed
• Improve MOS size
• Change MOS options
• Make the layout more compact
• Keep an eye on power consumption

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MICROWIND

• PROJECT EXAMPLES
• engage students in a stimulating learning
  experience using latest CMOS technologies
• Circuit analysis and optimization using WinSpice
• Combinational and sequential circuit layouts
• ALU Design
• Power amplifier Bluetooth

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EVALUATION
AUDIENCE
Question
1 I have a clear idea of what is expected of me in this course.
2 The ways in which I was taught provided me with opportunities to pursue my own learning.
3 The course enabled me to develop and/or strengthen a number of the qualities of a University of South Australia,INSA graduate.
4 I felt there was a genuine interest in my learning needs and progress.
5 The course developed my understanding of concepts and principles
6 The workload for this course was reasonable given my other study commitments
7 I have received feedback that is constructive and helpful.
8 The assessment tasks were related to the qualities of a University of South Australia, INSA graduate.
9 The staff teaching in this course showed a genuine interest in their teaching.
10 Overall I was satisfied with the quality of this course

• The VLSI course was evaluated anonymously by the
  students
• UNISA course evaluation questionnaire containing
  ten core questions and open text response.
• The students rated the course very highly in all
  the evaluation items.
• The course in the in the top-5 courses offered in
  engineering in UniSA.
• (off-line Dr. Aziz won the top teacher of the
  year in Australia 2009)

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EVALUATION
RESULTS

• Answers to questionnaire

UNISA
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EVALUATION
COMMENTS
Students

• From just a few logic gates, we have created a
  4-stage binary counter and compiled it into
  layout. It also gave us the basic concepts to
  understand the operation of the transistors in
  order to extract their models.
• The 24-hours clock project was a good exercise
  which permitted us to see how it is inside a
  semiconductor and how it works.
• We learned a lot about designing integrated
  circuit. We faced some practical problems, and
  tried to solve them or to understand them.
• This study allows us to understand the DAC
  running. In spite of some design problems, we
  managed to make the DAC work well.
• Before doing this project, we hadnt thought
  that there are as many ways to realize an
  amplifier. Its an area not easy to understand.
  Each technique has its limit. We tried to
  optimize our operational amplifier design to
  maximize the gain.

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PERSPECTIVES

• Application note on 32 nm 22 nm technologies
• Application note on process variability and
  Monte-Carlo simulation
• 3D views of packages based on IBIS
• 3D views of carbon-nano tubes

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CONCLUSION

• Intuitive and user friendly design tools enabled
  students to develop circuit design skills using
  nano-CMOS technologies
• Illustrations (2D, 3D, I/V) help to handle
  increased process complexity and refinements
• Effective project-based learning methodologies,
  helping to understand the impacts of technology
  scale down on factors such as speed, power and
  noise.
• Digital and analog basic bloc design with high
  levels of student satisfaction.
• Projects stimulate student curiosity and
  thinking.
• Software to be tuned to 22, 17 and 11 nm
  technologies
• Novel devices to be introduced when appropriate

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REFERENCES
1 E. Sicard and S. Ben Dhia Basic CMOS Cell
Design McGraw Hill professional series,
2006. 2 E. Sicard and S. Ben Dhia Advanced
CMOS Cell Design McGraw-Hill professional
series, 2007. 3 E. Sicard, Microwind Dsch
User's Manual, Version 3.5, June 2009. Online at
www.microwind.org. 4 S. M. Aziz, E. Sicard, S.
Ben Dhia Effective Teaching in Physical Design
of Integrated Circuits using Educational Tools
to appear IEEE Trans Education, 2010
The tool, manual and course slides are online at
www.microwind.org
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REFERENCES
MICROWIND DOWNLOADS www.microwind.net
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION