Fundamentals of analog VLSI design
EE-424
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Welcome to the course on Fundamentals of Analog & Mixed Signal VLSI Design
Summary
This course provides the stepping stones to becoming an A/MS IC designer, from simply understanding the operation of a transistor in a simple circuit context. Students must be familiar with basic transistor/circuit concepts (a review will be provided in the first few weeks) to be introduced to more advanced constructs of A/MS circuit design spanning across devices, structures, and architectures. The course significantly expands on basic concepts of analog circuit design (e.g., KCL, gmro, S-domain) and introduces fundamentals of device modeling, noise, mismatch, aging, and reliability. It also covers widely-used functional circuit blocks (e.g., regulators, voltage reference) and their design considerations.
Coursebook
You can find more information about this course by looking at the course book.
Program
| Week | Schedule | Topics | Teacher |
| 1 | 11.09.2024 | Introduction Technology roadmap | Prof. Enz |
| 2 | 18.09.2024 | Modeling of the MOS transistor for low-power design (long-channel) | Prof. Enz |
| 3 | 25.09.2024 | Modeling of the MOS transistor for low-power design (short-channel) | Prof. Enz |
| 4 | 02.10.2024 | Noise in circuits and systems | Prof. Enz |
| 5 | 09.10.2024 | The concept of inversion coefficient and Gm/ID design methodology | Prof. Enz |
| 6 | 16.10.2024 | Basic building blocks | Prof. Enz |
| 7 | 30.10.2024 | Amplifiers (OTAs and OPAMPs) Part 1 | Prof. Enz |
| 8 | 06.11.2024 | Amplifiers (OTAs and OPAMPs) Part 2 | Prof. Enz |
| 9 | 13.11.2024 | Offset and 1/f noise reduction techniques | Prof. Enz |
| 10 | 20.11.2024 | Continuous-time filters (CTFs) | Prof. Enz |
| 11 | 27.11.2024 | Switched-capacitors filters (SCF) | Prof. Enz |
| 12 | 04.12.2024 | Reference circuits | Prof. Choo |
| 13 | 11.12.2024 | Oscillators | Prof. Enz |
| 14 | 18.12.2024 | Comparators | Prof. Choo |
* Program may change depending on the process of the semester.
This course will be given every Wednesday from 13:15 to 17:00 in room INF 119. We won't be providing a Zoom link or a lecture recording, so in-person participation in the lecture is highly encouraged. Typically, the lectures will comprise 2 hours of lecture and 2 hours (or less) of exercise/Q&A. Some weeks will include 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of exercise/Q&A.
Exercise / Q&A session
Exercises will be given out as homework, where a solution/Q&A session will be held during the exercise session of the following week which require you to use Jupiter Notebook. During the exercise sessions, the professor and the TAs will be present to answer all your questions, so come prepared.
Note, please follow the installation procedure below (in 'additional resources' section) to set up Jupiter Notebook.
Final exam Q&A session
A Q&A session schedule is to be determined.
Final Exam
The exam is a written exam with an open book. You can bring a paper/electronic copy of all the slides and exercises (problems and solutions). Please also bring a pen, paper (plenty!) and a calculator. Also, you must bring a laptop or a tablet to access the exam in Moodle. Thus, connected electronic devices are allowed; however, communication apps are strictly prohibited. And don't use ChatGPT (it will be wrong anyway)! The exam will be in MCQ format, and it will be similar to the exercises given during the semester (but would involve a bit more mathematical rigor).
Additional resources
- Installation of Jupyter Notebook (Page)
- Installation of the Smash simulator (Page)
- Smash Simulation Examples (Folder)
- Installing the ngspice simulator (Page)
- ngspice spinit file (File)
- EKV 2.6 Verilog-A and osdi files (Folder)
- Books (Page)
1) Introduction (11.09.2024)
Contents:
- Course description
- What is circuit design
- Technology roadmap
Slides:
2) Modeling of the MOS transistor for low-power design (long-channel) (18.09.2024)
Contents:
- Introduction
- The static model
- The small-signal model
- The noise model
- Transistor matching
Slides:
3) Modeling of the MOS transistor for low-power design (short-channel) (25.09.2024)
Contents:
- Introduction
- Velocity saturation (VS)
- Channel length modulation (CLM)
- Drain-induced barrier lowering (DIBL)
- Output conductance in saturation
- Impact of short-channel effects on thermal noise
- The simplified EKV model
Slides:
4) Noise in circuits and systems (2.10.2024)
Contents:
- Introduction
- Random signals and noise
- Main noise sources of circuit components
- Noise models of basic components
- Noise calculation in continuous-time (CT) circuits
- Summary
Slides:
5) The concept of inversion coefficient and Gm/ID design methodology (9.10.2024)
Contents:
- Introduction
- The concept of inversion coefficient
- CS optimization in open-loop configuration
- CS optimization in closed-loop configuration
- Figures-of-merit (FoMs) as design guidelines
- Conclusion
Slides:
6) Basic building blocks (16.10.2024)
Contents
- Current mirrors
- Cascode stage
- Differential pair
- Elementary gain cells and source follower
- Current references
7) Amplifiers (OTAs and OPAMPs) (30.10.2024)
Contents
- Introduction
- OTA with capacitive feedback
- The simple OTA
- The symmetrical OTA
8) Amplifiers (OTAs and OPAMPs) (6.11.2024)
Contents
- The two-stage OTA or Miller OTA
- The telescopic OTA
- The folded cascode OTA
- The CMOS inverter OTA
- Improved slew-rate OTAs
- 8) Single-ended Differential Amplifiers (OTAs) Part 2 (File)
- 8) Single-ended Differential Amplifiers (OTAs) Part 3 (File)
9) Offset and 1/f noise reduction techniques (13.11.2024)
Contents:
- Introduction
- Noise sampling
- The autozero (AZ) technique
- The chopper stabilization (CS) technique
- Conclusion
10) Continuous-time filters (CTFs)
Contents:
- Introduction
- RC-active filters
- MOSFET-C filters
- Gm-C filters
- Source-follower CTFs
- Noise in CTFs
- Automatic tuning
11) Switched-capacitors filters (SCF) (27.11.2024)
Contents:
- Introduction
- Basic principles
- Non-ideal effects in SC circuits
- The design of switched-capacitor filters (SCF)
12) Oscillators (11.12.2024)
Contents:
- Introduction
- General considerations
- The 3-points oscillator
- The cross-coupled pair oscillator
12) Reference circuits (4.12.2024)
14) Comparators (18.12.2024)
Exercise (18.09.2024)
Exercise (25.09.2024)
Exercise (2.10.2024)
- Exercise 3 - Problem (File)
- Exercise 3 - Solution (File)
- Cascode analysis (File)
- Simple OTA analysis (File)
Exercise (9.10.2024)
- Exercise 4 - Problem (File)
- Exercise 4 - Solution (File)
- Exercise 4 - Mathematica file (File)
- Exercise 4 - Jupyter Notebook (File)
- Exercise 4 - Solution (HTML) (File)
Exercise (16.10.2024)
- Exercise 5 - Problem (File)
- Exercise 5 - Solution (HTML) (File)
- Exercise 5 - Jupyter Notebook (File)
Exercise (30.10.2024)
Exercise (6.11.2024)
- Exercise 7 - Problem (File)
- Exercise 7 - Solution (HTML) (File)
- Exercise 7 - Solution (Clean JPN) (File)
Exercise (13.11.2024)
- Exercise 8 - Problem (File)
- Exercise 8 - Solution Symmetrical OTA (HTML) (File)
- Exercise 8 - Solution Symmetrical OTA (Clean JPN) (File)
- Exercise 8 - Solution Miller OTA (HTML) (File)
- Exercise 8 - Solution Miller OTA (Clean PN) (File)
Exercise (20.11.2024)
- Exercise 9 - Problem (File)
- Exercise 9 - Solution Telescopic OTA (Clean JPN) (File)
- Exercise 9 - Solution Folded Cascode (Clean JPN) (File)
Exercise (27.11.2024)
Exercise (4.12.2024)
- Exercise 11 - Problem (File)
- Exercise 11 - Solution Problem 1 (JPN and HTML) (File)
- Exercise 11 - Solution Problem 2 (JPN and HTML) (File)
Exercise (11.12.2024)
- Exercise 12 - Problem (File)
- Exercise 12 - Solution Problem 1 (JPN) (File)
- Exercise 12 - Solution Problem 1 (HTML) (File)
- Exercise12 - Solution Problem 2 (JPN) (File)
- Exercise 12 - Solution Problem 2 (HTML) (File)