Digital Integrated Circuit Design Training Course.

Introduction

The Digital Integrated Circuit (IC) Design Training Course provides participants with the foundational knowledge and practical skills needed to design modern digital ICs. Digital ICs are the backbone of modern electronic systems, driving the functionality of everything from smartphones and computers to automotive systems and IoT devices. With increasing complexity and performance requirements, mastering digital IC design is crucial for engineers in the semiconductor industry.

This course covers the essentials of digital IC design, from logic gates and flip-flops to advanced topics like timing analysis, design for testability (DFT), and high-performance digital systems. Participants will gain experience in designing combinational and sequential circuits, understanding the behavior of CMOS technology, and applying best practices in timing, power, and area optimization. Hands-on workshops will reinforce the theoretical knowledge by providing practical design and simulation experiences using industry-standard tools.

Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will:

1. Understand the fundamental principles of digital IC design, including logic gates, flip-flops, and sequential circuits.
2. Learn how to design and optimize combinational and sequential logic circuits.
3. Gain knowledge of CMOS technology and how it is used in digital ICs.
4. Understand the design flow of digital ICs, from specification and design to verification and testing.
5. Learn the importance of power, area, and timing considerations in digital design.
6. Master digital design techniques for high-performance and low-power circuits.
7. Become familiar with EDA tools (Electronic Design Automation) and simulation tools like Cadence, Synopsys, and ModelSim for digital IC design.
8. Learn design for testability (DFT) techniques and their application in digital ICs.
9. Apply concepts to design and verify real-world digital ICs.

Who Should Attend?

This course is ideal for:

• Digital IC Designers and ASIC Designers who want to deepen their knowledge of modern digital design practices.
• Electrical Engineers working on digital systems or embedded systems.
• System Engineers who need a deeper understanding of digital circuit design for complex systems.
• VLSI Engineers and designers involved in the creation of custom chips and SoCs (Systems on Chip).
• Graduate Students in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or related fields specializing in digital electronics.
• Software Engineers interested in hardware design or involved in hardware-software co-design.
• Engineers interested in learning digital IC design for applications such as communications, consumer electronics, and automotive systems.

Course Outline

Day 1: Introduction to Digital IC Design

Session 1: Digital Logic Fundamentals

• Overview of digital IC design and its importance.
• Binary logic and Boolean algebra: AND, OR, NOT, NAND, NOR, XOR gates.
• Truth tables, logic simplification, and Boolean expressions.
• Minimizing logic circuits using Karnaugh maps and Quine–McCluskey algorithm.
• Basic combinational circuits: Multiplexers, decoders, encoders, and adders.

Session 2: Digital Design Principles

• Gate delays and propagation delay.
• Static and dynamic behavior of digital circuits.
• Power consumption and heat dissipation in digital circuits.
• Designing for robustness: Noise margins, fan-out, and driving capabilities.
• Introduction to CMOS technology and its advantages in digital IC design.

Session 3: CMOS Digital Circuits

• Basics of CMOS technology: Transistor-level design and behavior.
• CMOS inverters: Operation and design considerations.
• CMOS logic gates: NAND, NOR, AND, OR gates.
• Propagation delay and sizing of CMOS gates.
• Power dissipation in CMOS circuits: Static vs. dynamic power.

Hands-On Workshop: Design a basic logic gate (AND, OR, NOT) using CMOS transistors and simulate its performance.

Day 2: Combinational Logic Design

Session 1: Design of Combinational Circuits

• Adder circuits: Half adder, full adder, and ripple-carry adders.
• Multiplexers and demultiplexers: Design and application in ICs.
• Code converters: Gray code, BCD to binary, and binary to BCD converters.
• Comparators: Design and applications in digital systems.
• Arithmetic logic units (ALUs): Design considerations and components.

Session 2: Timing and Optimization in Combinational Circuits

• Timing analysis of combinational circuits: Setup and hold times, propagation delay.
• Critical path analysis and optimization.
• Power optimization: Low-power design techniques for combinational circuits.
• Area optimization: Minimizing area and maximizing performance in digital circuits.
• Trade-offs between speed, power, and area.

Session 3: Simulation and Verification of Combinational Circuits

• Simulation techniques: Functional simulation vs. timing simulation.
• Testbenches and verification in digital design.
• Timing diagram analysis: Setup and hold violations.
• Debugging common issues in combinational circuits.

Hands-On Workshop: Design and simulate a 4-bit ALU using combinational logic and verify its functionality using a simulation tool.

Day 3: Sequential Logic Design

Session 1: Flip-Flops and Latches

• Introduction to sequential circuits: Flip-flops vs. latches.
• SR, JK, D, and T flip-flops: Operation, timing, and applications.
• Master-slave flip-flops and edge-triggered flip-flops.
• Race conditions and hazards in sequential circuits.
• Setup and hold time analysis in sequential circuits.

Session 2: Registers, Counters, and State Machines

• Registers and shift registers: Operation and application in digital systems.
• Binary counters: Design and types (up/down, ripple, synchronous).
• State machines: Moore vs. Mealy machines, state diagram design.
• Sequential circuit design methodology: State minimization, transition tables.

Session 3: Timing Analysis and Clocking in Sequential Circuits

• Clocking schemes: Global clock vs. local clock distribution.
• Clock skew, jitter, and timing violations in sequential circuits.
• Static timing analysis: Setup and hold time calculations.
• Clock domain crossing and synchronization techniques.

Hands-On Workshop: Design and simulate a simple 4-bit counter using flip-flops and analyze its timing behavior.

Day 4: High-Performance Digital Design

Session 1: High-Speed Design Techniques

• Critical path analysis and pipelining techniques.
• Parallelism and multi-stage pipeline designs for high performance.
• Design of high-speed registers and flip-flops.
• Skew and jitter management in high-speed digital systems.
• Delay optimization and layout considerations for fast circuits.

Session 2: Power and Area Optimization Techniques

• Low-power design techniques: Dynamic voltage scaling (DVS), clock gating, power gating.
• Techniques for reducing leakage power: Multi-threshold CMOS (MTCMOS), body biasing.
• Area optimization in digital ICs: Gate sizing, transistor sizing, and layout efficiency.
• Floorplanning and placement considerations in IC design.

Session 3: Design for Testability (DFT)

• Introduction to DFT: Importance in modern digital ICs.
• Scan chain insertion and boundary scan techniques.
• Built-in self-test (BIST) for digital ICs.
• Fault models: Stuck-at faults, transition faults, and delay faults.
• ATPG (Automatic Test Pattern Generation) for digital designs.

Hands-On Workshop: Implement a simple scan chain and BIST technique in a digital circuit and verify its functionality.

Day 5: Digital IC Design Flow and Verification

Session 1: IC Design Flow

• The IC design flow: Specification, design, verification, and manufacturing.
• EDA tools for digital IC design: Cadence, Synopsys, and others.
• RTL design and verification using HDLs (Verilog/VHDL).
• Design entry, synthesis, and place-and-route in digital IC design.
• Post-layout simulation and analysis of digital circuits.

Session 2: Design Verification and Debugging

• Verification techniques: Functional verification, formal verification, and timing verification.
• Simulation tools: ModelSim, Xilinx Vivado, and Cadence Incisive.
• Debugging techniques for digital ICs: Identifying timing violations, logic errors.
• Testbenches and assertion-based verification.
• Use of hardware emulation and FPGA for digital design verification.

Session 3: Final Project and Application

• Final project: Design and simulate a small digital IC (e.g., a simple processor or communication module).
• Perform timing analysis, power, and area optimization.
• Design for testability and validate the design using simulation tools.

Final Hands-On Workshop: Complete the final project design, optimize it for performance, and verify its functionality using simulation and testbenches.

Final Assessment & Certification

• Knowledge Check: A final exam covering key topics such as combinational and sequential logic design, timing analysis, DFT, and optimization techniques.
• Project Presentation: Participants will present their final project, demonstrating their design, simulation, and verification process.
• Certification: Participants will receive a certificate of completion after successfully passing the final exam and presenting their project.