Overview - ECE 4130, Advanced VLSI Systems

Topics Covered

1. MOSFET Characteristics
2. The CMOS inverter
   1. Characteristics
   2. Threshold voltage dependence
3. Logic gates via CMOS
4. Logic via Pseudo-NMOS, Transmission Gate, Pass-Transistor
   1. Multiplexers
5. Dynamic Logic via Clocks
   • Advantages and Disadvantages
   • Using Clocks to speed up circuits
6. Sequential Elements in Circuits
   • Timing Analysis
   • Delays
   • Clock sync
   • Clock Crossing
7. SRAM and DRAM overview
   • Read and Write Logic
   • Behaviour according to size and threshold values

Lab work

1. Inverter chain delay
2. Circuit analysis via Virtuoso
   1. Parameter sweep
   2. Graphing
   3. Usage of Calculator in Virtuoso
3. Inverter sizing for $V_t = \frac{V_{dd}}{2}$
4. Capacitance of an inverter and its impact on delays
5. Microprocessor Pipelining and Delays
6. Pseudo-NMOS topology analysis
7. SRAM construction with WRITE cycle analysis via Virtuoso

Topics to be learned

1. Power Analysis