Synthesis of digital integrated circuits

lelec2570  2024-2025  Louvain-la-Neuve

Synthesis of digital integrated circuits
5.00 credits
30.0 h + 30.0 h
Q1
> Schedule
Teacher(s)
Bol David;
Language
English
> French-friendly
Prerequisites
  • The basic formation in digital electronic circuits is compulsory: LELEC2531 at UCL.
  • A course in embedded system design is an advantage: LINGI2315 at UCL.

The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement – UE) for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet.
Main themes
The exponential increase in computing performances of digital integrated circuits (ICs) fundamentally modified our everyday's life in numerous domains (consumer, business, medical, industrial). Nowadays these circuits feature several millions of transistors, which results a high design complexity. 
Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

1 With respect to the AA referring system defined for the Master in Electrical Engineering, the course contributes to the development, mastery and assessment of the following skills :
  • AA1.1AA1.2
  • AA2.1, AA2.2, AA2.3, AA2.4, AA2.5
  • AA3.1
  • AA5.5
b. After this course, the electrical engineers in circuit and systems should be able to:
  • produce the layout of a digital IC in a modern CMOS technology starting from a behavorial description and using industrial-level EDA tools,
  • discuss the trade-offs linked to the synthesis of digital ICs between silicon area, computing performance, power consumption, flexibility and robustness,
  • setup a strategy for verifying the obtained results using HDL simulations,
  • rapidly evaluate the efficiency of high-level architectural solutions and HW/SW optimizations,
  • communicate clearly and efficiently technical results in a circuit design report.
 
Content
  • Microcontroller-based embedded systems.
  • High-level design and verification of digital SoCs.
  • Robust HDL coding in Verilog.
  • Logic synthesis of digital circuits.
  • Clocking and timing closure.
  • Digital standard cell libraries and hard macros.
  • Place and route of digital circuits.
  • CMOS technology scaling.
  • DSP architecture, arithmetic circuits and hardware accelerators.
  • Historical perspective on the development of the microelectronics industry and its ecological implications.
Teaching methods
The course is organized as follows.
  • Lectures introducing the various digital IC concepts, illustrated by recent digital IC examples from both the industrial and research worlds.
  • Seminars given by experts from the industrial world regarding the design of digital ICs.
  • A central project on the full design of an industry-relevant digital SoC with weekly group assignements linked to the steps of the design flow. In this project, the students use industrial EDA tools to design their SoC.
  • The interaction between the students, the teachers and assistants will be encouraged by the use of a discussion forum on Moodle platform and interactive project debriefing sessions during the lectures.
This course adresses questions linked to sustainability and the socio-ecological transition through a 2-hour lecture on the ecological consequences of the microelectronics buisness model.
Evaluation methods
See the French version.
Online resources
Moodle
https://moodle.uclouvain.be/course/view.php?id=557
Bibliography
Chapitres de certains livres de référence.
Teaching materials
  • Transparents des cours, chapitres de certains livres de référence disponibles en ligne.
Faculty or entity
> ELEC


Programmes / formations proposant cette unité d'enseignement (UE)

Title of the programme
Sigle
Credits
Prerequisites
Learning outcomes
Master [120] in Electrical Engineering
ELEC2M
5
LELEC2531
Master [120] in Electro-mechanical Engineering
ELME2M
5