VLSI Design Flow

The objective of this course is to develop a basic understanding of the methods, tools and technologies that go into transforming an "idea" into an "integrated circuit". This course is intended to give an overall perspective of the VLSI design flow, going through various stages of designing such as synthesis, floor planning, placement, routing etc. and various steps of verification such as simulation, formal methods and timing/power analysis. In this course, ample opportunities will be provided to employ the-state-of-the-art CAD tools and gain a practical understanding of the VLSI design flow. A few representative algorithms that work inside the CAD tools will also be discussed.

• Students are able to explain the design and verification steps in the VLSI design flow and their purpose and significance.
• Students are able to evaluate various trade-offs that need to be made at various steps in the VLSI design flow.
• Students are able to design and verify simple VLSI circuits using the state-of-the-art computer aided design (CAD) tools at different levels of abstractions.
• Students are able to apply representative algorithms that are used in implementing CAD tools to design and verify integrated circuits.