15ELEC17H

VLSI Technology
Fall 2015
Lecture 01: Introduction
Dr. Hassan Mostafa
.
Hassan.mostafa@bue.edu.eg
[Adapted from Rabaeys Digital Integrated Circuits, 2002, J. Rabaey et al.]

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Module Outline

Module objectives

Ability to design and implement CMOS digital circuits and optimize them
with respect to different constraints: size (cost), speed, power
dissipation, and reliability

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Module contents
Introduction
CMOS

Processing

Circuits/Layouts
CMOS

Inverter/ Combinational Gates

Dynamic/Pass
Sequential
Memory

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Transistors Design

Design

arrays
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Module Outline

Instructor:

Dr. Hassan Mostafa

Hassan.mostafa@bue.edu.eg

Office : E (Extension) Room # 9

Textbook:

Course Websire

Digital Integrated Circuits, 2nd Edition, Rabaey et. al., 2002

BUE University El-learning

Grading:

10%: In-class test

30%: Course Project
60%: Final Examination

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Semiconductor devices
Semiconductor devices are electronic devices that are fabricated
using semiconductor materials such as Silicon, Germanium, and
Gallium Arsenide.
Semiconductor devices are available as discrete components (available
on shelf in electronics stores)
or can be integrated with a large number of similar devices onto a single
chip, called an Integrated Circuit(IC).

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Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS)

CMOS is a technology for constructing ICs. This technology
is used in microprocessors, microcontrollers, Memories, and other

digital logic circuits.

Microprocessor

Microcontroller

RAM
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Information age

The ability to fabricate billions of

individual components (transistors,
resistors, capacitors, etc.) on a silicon
chip with an area of a few cm2 has
enabled the information age.

Shrinking geometries permit more

devices to be placed in a given are of
silicon.

It is widely expected that these historical

trends will continue for at least another 510 years, resulting in Chips that contain
tens of billions of components.

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First Transistor from Bell Labs (1947)

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Kilby first IC (1958)

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First monolithic integrated circuit

1961
Picture shows a flipflop circuit containing
6 devices, produced in
planar technology.
Source:
R. N. Neyce, Semiconductor
device-and-lead structure,
U.S.Patent 2,981,877

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first microprocessor

1971
Picture shows a
four-bit microprocessor
Intel 4004.

10 m technology

3 mm 4 mm

2300 MOS-FETs

108 kHz clock frequency

Source:
Intel Corporation

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Pentium IV processor

2001
Picture shows a ULSI
chip with 32-bit processor
Intel Pentium 4.
0.18m CMOS technology
17.5 mm 19 mm
42 000 000 components
1.6 GHz clock freuqncy
Source:
Intel Corporation

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Moores Law

In 1965, Gordon Moore predicted that the number of

transistors that can be integrated on a die would double
every 18 to 14 months (i.e., grow exponentially with
time).

Amazingly visionary million transistor/chip barrier was

crossed in the 1980s.

2300 transistors, 1 MHz clock (Intel 4004) - 1971

16 Million transistors (Ultra Sparc III)
42 Million, 2 GHz clock (Intel P4) - 2001

Xilinx currently holds the "world-record" for an

FPGA chip containing more than 20 billion
transistors

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Moores Law in Microprocessors

Transistors on microprocessors double every 2 years
1 Billion
Transistors

K
1,000,000
100,000

Pentium III
Pentium II
Pentium Pro
Pentium
i486
i386
80286

10,000
1,000
100
10

8086
Source: Intel

1
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Projected

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Courtesy, Intel
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Moores law scaling

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Moore and CMOS Scaling

CMOS scaling will not stay forever, but, forever can be delayed
Moore, 2003
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Clean Rooms
Clean room facility:
Particle free walls, furniture, and accessories must be used
Airflow through 0.3 microns filters

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Clean Rooms
Clean room facility:
Main function of clean rooms is control of particle
contamination
Requires control of air flow, water and chemical filtrations,
human protocol
Class N clean room means fewer than N particles (>0.5 m) in
1 cubic foot of air
Classes types:
Class 10,000
Class 1,000
Class 100
Class 10

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Clean Rooms
Clean room facility:

Class 10,000

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Class 100

Class 1,000

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Electronics Design Flow

Design the circuit using electronic components

Simulate your circuit using Spice

Adjust the circuit till the simulation results are correct

Draw your layout

Simulate your layout (with parasitic) using Spice

Adjust the circuit/layout till the simulation results are

correct

Send your design for tape-out

Test your chip If not working Repeat

If working

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Design Abstraction Levels

System specs, e.g.
design a divider that
works at a given rate,
etc.

SYSTEM

MODULE
+
GATE
CIRCUIT
DEVICE
S
n+

D
n+

Should work at as high a

level as you possibly
can. In this course we

A logic level
description
Describing the circuit
in terms of device
and element
connections
Considering the
physics of the
individual devices on
chip

focus on circuit and

module levels
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Architectural
description using
macro blocks

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Intutively:

Digital integrated circuits experience exponential

growth in complexity (Moores law) and performance

Design in the Deep SubMicron (DSM) era creates new

challenges

Devices become somewhat different

Global clocking becomes more challenging
Interconnect effects play a more significant role
Power dissipation may be the limiting factor

Our goal in this class will be to understand and design

digital integrated circuits in the deep submicron era

Now, we look at some basic design metrics and

definitions

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Introduce your self:

A random student should be asked to stand in front of the class and present
her/him self in 3 minutes. His classmates should evaluate his presentation
and give him comments right after the presentation

Student sitting on the left side, in the last row, number 1 from the wall.

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Fundamental Design Metrics

Functionality

Cost

NRE (fixed) costs - design effort

RE (variable) costs - cost of parts, assembly, test

Time-to-market

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Cost of Integrated Circuits

NRE (non-recurring engineering) costs

Fixed cost to produce the design

- design effort
- design verification effort
- mask generation

Influenced by the design complexity and designer productivity

More pronounced for small volume products

Recurring costs proportional to product volume

silicon processing
- also proportional to chip area

assembly (packaging)
test
fixed cost
cost per IC = variable cost per IC + ----------------volume

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NRE Cost is Increasing

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Silicon Wafer
Single die

Wafer

From http://www.amd.com

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Recurring Costs
cost of die

cost of wafer
= ----------------------------------dies per wafer die yield

number of functioning dies

die yield = -------------------------------------------total number of dies
Which of the following wafers have higher yield?

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What is?

Electric field

Mobility

Resistance

Capacitance

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Electric field (x)

An area around a charged body where it exerts a force

on other charged particles

E is often a complex vector function of the charge and

geometry of the charged body as well as the geometry
and materials around it

Remember one case well though, the electric field on a

straight line between two nodes at a certain potential
difference is:

V
E
L
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Mobility (m)

It is easier for electrons in CB to move than for all the

electrons in the VB to displace a hole

This ease is assigned the term mobility

Mobility has a certain mathematical definition as the ratio of

velocity to electric field

This is an undergrad concept, mobility is the derivative of

speed with electric field

Note also that we will never assume double electron to

hole mobility in this course

The curve indicates mobility is variable, leading to

interesting results to be shown later

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Resistance (R)

How much the body resists the flow of steady current

Function of the geometry and the material

The material part is called conductivity s (inverse

resistivity r)

In terms of geometry larger cross-section and shorter

length reduce resistance

L
rL
R

sA A
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Capacitance

Capacitance is the ability of a body or structure to hold

charge stored at a certain potential

The parallel plate capacitor is the most important model

for this course

r 0A

d
C Q /V
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How a processor is made today?

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Sand
1- Sand. Made up of 25 percent silicon, is, after oxygen, the second most chemical
element thats in the earths crust. Sand has high percentages of silicon in the form
of silicon dioxide (SiO2)

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Silicon
2-After separating the silicon, it is purified in multiple steps to finally reach S.C.
manufacturing quality which is called electronic grade silicon . The
resulting purity is so great that it may only have one alien atom for every one
billion silicon atoms.

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Silicon Wafer fabrication

3-After the purification process, the silicon enters the melting phase.

A monocrystal ingot is produced from electronic grade silicon. One ingot weighs
approximately 100 kilograms and has a silicon purity of 99.9999
percent.

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Single Crystal Silicon Wafer

4-The ingot is then moved onto the slicing phase where individual silicon discs, called
wafers, are sliced thin. Several different diameters of ingots exist depending on
the required wafer size. Today, CPUs are commonly made on 300 mm wafers.
Once cut, the wafers are polished until they have flawless, mirror-smooth
surfaces.

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Lithography
5-The blue liquid is a photo resist finish similar to those used in film for

photography. The wafer spins during this step to allow an evenly-distributed

coating thats smooth and also very thin. At this stage, the photo-resistant
finish is exposed to ultra violet (UV) light.

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etching
6-The exposure is done using masks that act like stencils. When used with UV
light, masks create the various circuit patterns. This process over and over
until multiple layers are stacked on top of each other.

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Doping (ion implantation)

7- Through a process called ion implantation (doping) the exposed areas of the
silicon wafer are bombarded with ions. Ions are implanted in the silicon wafer to
alter the way silicon in these areas conduct electricity. Ions are propelled onto
the surface of the wafer at very high velocities.

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How a Processor is made ?

8- The wafers are put into a copper sulphate solution at this stage. Copper ions are
deposited onto the transistor through a process called electroplating.

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How a Processor is made ?

9-The copper ions settle as a thin layer on the wafer surface. The excess material
is polished off leaving a very thin layer of copper. Multiple metal layers are
created to interconnects (think wires) in between the various transistors.

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How a Processor is made ?

10-This fraction of a ready wafer is being put through a first functionality test. In
this stage test patterns are fed into every single chip and the response from
the chip monitored and compared to the right answer.

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How a Processor is made ?

11-The dies that responded with the right answer to the test pattern will be put
forward for the next step (packaging).

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