INTRODUCTION TO VLSI DESIGN

VLSI Design
VLSI is the process of creating integrated circuits by
combining thousands of transistors into a single chip

Implementation on device

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 Very Large Scale Integration
Integration: Integrated Circuits
Many transistor on one chip
How large is Very Large?
SSI (small scale integration)
10-100 transistors per chip
MSI
100-1000 transistors
LSI
1,000-20,000 transistors
VLSI
20,000-1,000,000 transistors
ULSI
>1,000,000 (advance VLSI)
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 The First Integrated Circuit

In1958, First IC built

by Jack Kilby at
Texas Instruments

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 Why VLSI Design?
• Integration improves the design
• Higher speed
• Reduce Manufacturing cost
• Physically smaller
• Lower power consumption
• Increased functionality and frequency of operation

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 Benefit of Transistor Scaling
“Moore’s Law”- number of transistors doubles every 1.5 to 2 years

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 Fabrication Technology
Surface Micromachining Bulk Micromachining
Fabricate mechanical Structures above Fabricate mechanical Structures in the
the surface using sacrificial layers. substrate using orientation dependent
etching.

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 Process Technology
Technology - 0.07m , Voltage Vdd - 0.6v

Chip + Processing steps* = Monolithic integration

A
GND VDD
Y

Si wafer p+ n+ n+ p+ p+ n+

n well
p substrate

substrate tap well tap

* Sequence of additive and subtractive steps with lateral patterning

Oxidation, depositon and Etching Lithography

ion implantaion
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 Types of IC Designs
• IC Designs can be Analog or Digital
• 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
-Mixture of custom and synthesized modules
 IC Products
• Processors
– CPU, DSP, Controllers
• Memory chips
– RAM, ROM, EEPROM
• Analog
– Mobile communication,
audio/video processing
• Programmable
– PLA, FPGA
• Embedded systems
– Used in cars, factories
– Network cards
• System-on-chip (SoC)

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