VLSI at the EE Department, University of Maryland, College Park

VLSI (=Very Large Scale Integrated) circuits are key to today's high technology. Students with a working knowledge of VLSI find themselves to be in high demand by industry.
Therefore it is the intent of the VLSI related faculty to make available to all students of the EE Department the chance to design, simulate, fabricate, and test VLSI chips. For students in our courses, funds for the fabrication of chips, particlarly Tiny Chips, are made available through HP and AMI funding for fabrication via the MOSIS foundry (for which simulation and testing are required)

The steps to fabricate a chip are:

1. Associated with a course authorized for fabrication money, arrange with the professor to get approval.
2. Make a design and obtain a working simulation.
3. Prepare a layout and obtain a CIF file from it.
4. Contact Mr. Jay Renner for authorization and procedures to send off the CIF file to MOSIS for fabrication (see below).
5. Send the CIF file to MOSIS, correct errors, and obtain the clearance for fabrication from MOSIS. Typically it is eight weeks after the fabrication date when Mr. Renner receives the chips.
6. Make measurements on the fabricated chip and send the report to MOSIS via Mr. Renner This is a most crucial step as future funding depends on filing the report.

To process a chip through MOSIS, contact Mr. Jay Renner
Click here to send him email.

The activities are under the guidance of the EE Department MOSIS Group Committee. Previously NSF made an equipment grant for the VLSI Design Automation Lab , through Professor K. Nakajima, to enhance our testing capabilities of digital chips. The faculty who have participated with their courses in which students recently have been able to fabricated chips are:

• P. Abshire
  ENEE 408D Mixed Signal Very Large Scale Integration Design
• M. Dagenais
  ENEE 691 Optics & Communications Systems
• N. Declaris
  ENEE 459I Intelligent Computer Models, Design Methods and Applications
  
• N. Goldsman
  ENEE 696 Integrated and Microwave Electronics
  
• A. Iliadis
  ENEE 417 Microelectronic Design Laboratory
• K. J. R. Liu
  ENEE 728O Signal Processing Algorithms and Architectures
• K. Nakajima
  ENEE 449 (previous ENEE488Z/459Z) Modern Digital System Design Lab
  ENEE 459Y (previous ENEE488Y) Digital VLSI Sysstem Design Laboratory
  ENEE 640 (previous 648T) VLSI Architecture
  ENEE 644 Computer-Aided Design of Digital Systems
  ENEE 749 (previous 748M) Advanced Digital System Design
  ENEE 750 (previous 748T) VLSI Design Automation
• R. Newcomb
  ENEE 302 Analog Electronic Circuits
  ENEE 312 Digital Electronics
  ENEE 417 Microelectronics Design Lab
  ENEE 488N Neural Network Implementation
  ENEE 493 Introduction to VLSI Design
  ENEE 698E Microelectronics Seminar
  ENEE 610 Network Theory
  ENEE 696 Integrated and Microwave Electronics
• Y. Oruc
  ENEE350 Computer Organization
  ENEE 646 Digital Computer Design
• M. Peckerar
  ENEE601 Semiconductor Devices and Technology
  
• S. Shamma
  ENEE 322 Signal & System Theory
• G. Syrmos
  Analog Electronic Circuits
• C.-H. Yang
  ENEE 417 Microelectronics Design Lab

Both analog and digital circuits are under consideration with the activities including:

• Analog
  For more information contact Professor R. Newcomb.
  Typical designs include artificial neural networks, models of the ear, chaos generators, fuzzy membership circuits, and multiple limit cycle oscillators.