As we are moving towards digitalization, the VLSI domain comes into play. VLSI is an initialisation of Very Large-Scale Integration. In VLSI, hundreds of thousands of transistors are amalgamated to form a chip. You can see the use of chips with multi-million transistors in cars, refrigerators, TVs, and laptops everywhere. All modern electronics, information, and communication technology products use chips for their functioning. So, they are the base for all modern gadgets, Amplifiers, Sensors, medical devices, automobiles, monitoring devices, processors, etc.
Everyone is very much familiar with the word Semiconductor. Working on semiconductors as a chip designer comes under VLSI. Knowledge of digital, analog, and CMOS circuitry will help you to understand VLSI. If you think it is tough, some skilful experts associated with assignment services in Australia will provide you with Buy assignment to enhance your skills and knowledge.
Stratification of VLSI
It can be stratified as follows:
- ASICS
- FPGA
- Analog custom IC
ASIC is application specific integrated system. Before, It was very bulky and heavy. But now, as CMOS VLSI comes into play, cost and size both get reduced. FPGA is a field programmable gate array. The difference between these two is that ASIC chips are designated for a particular task, but FPGA chips are for multipurpose. So, ASICs are faster and more economical in terms of cost and power than FPGA. Besides these, there are a lot of other differences too between these two as the time to market, Design flow, Unit cost, performance, unit size, power consumption, etc.
Steps of Flow Involved in the Process:
- Chip verification
- Functional verification
- RTL Design
- DFT
- Floor planning
- Partitioning
- Clock tree
- Routing
- Final verification
- GDS II
Design Structure:
Following is the design structure:
- Digital design
- Analog design
- Mixed signal design
Digital design involves:
- Front End design
- Back End design
In Front End Design, Functional verification is done. The HDL model gets checked for its architectural function and correctness using UVM or other verification methods. Whereas in Back-end Design, the HDL model gets synthesized. High-level RTL code gets transformed into low-level constructs to form a netlist.
Analog Design Involves:
- Circuit design
- Mask layout design
In-Circuit Design, exposure to complete analog design, DC-DC converter, PLL, and signal integrity is necessary. Mask layout design involves full chip IR analysis, floor planning, memory layout, etc.
Mixed Signal Design Involves:
- RFIC
- SIGNAL integrity
Skills You need to Expertise:
In this domain, Freshers are most welcome. Let us discuss the basic requirements that a company looks at in you. Following is the list:
Basics of Digital design: You read this subject in your engineering. Just go a bit deep and understand the microarchitecture of design in terms of logic blocks and their interconnections.
Basics of Analog design: This too is your subject. Now it’s time to know a little bit more about the working and architecture of PLL, JITTER, Analog to Digital converter, Digital to Analog converter, clocking system domain, etc.
Design flow and methodology:
Just go a bit deeper to understand the design flow of RTL design, Physical design, etc.
HDL Language: you must know one hardware description language (HDL). For example, VHDL, Verilog, System Verilog, System C, etc.
Scripting Language: You must know at least one scripting language. Examples are Python, Perl, BASH, Tcl/TK, etc. Knowledge of the C language is a plus point.
Programming Tool: You must be familiar with Xilinx ISE and Modelsim tools.
Hardware Kit: Spartan Evaluation Kit, If you are familiar with Spartan, It would be great.
Verification Language:
UVM/OVM is needed to verify the RTL code.
In conclusion, the VLSI industry sector is rapidly growing and will continue to grow till there is demand for speed and power. You can easily find VLSI with one glance around you. So, many companies are ready to hire you as demand is more but supply is less. These companies can be catalogued as Product, Foundry, IP, EDA, and Service. If You find any difficulty while learning the skills or are lingering on any topic, you can connect with highly experienced experts for Economics Homework Help. They will help you to deliver your task in time.