Very large-scale integration (VLSI) is the process of creating an integrated circuit (IC) by combining millions of MOS transistors onto a single chip. The microprocessor and memory chips are VLSI devices. An electronic circuit might consist of a CPU, ROM, RAM and other glue logic. VLSI lets IC designers add all of these into one chip. IN ACTE, the course is about Basic concepts of VLSI System Design. The Course will cover end-to-end description from basic Device Physics to Chip Design. ACTE provides comprehensive training on specific aspect of the VLSI Design flow.Start Learning with us ACTE VLSI Classroom and Online Training Course.
VLSI is one of the best options for electronics engineers who are looking for core job. VLSI offers diverse job profiles with excellent career growth and pay packages in India and abroad.
Yes. It does demand a lot of passion, effort, analytical and problem-solving skills to get into the semiconductor industry but if you start right with keeping your basics strong and learning as per Industry’s demands, You could easily make it to a successful career in this fast-growing industry.
From a job-perspective, VLSI is the most future proof career for electronics and electrical engineers. Refer to the below article to understand the huge requirement of trained resources in the industry.There are lot of VLSI startup companies which are started just 5 to 10 years back and yielding very good. And it is expected that lot more startups will come in forth coming years
We are happy and proud to say that we have strong relationship with over 700+ small, mid-sized and MNCs. Many of these companies have openings for VLSI analyst. Moreover, we have a very active placement cell that provides 100% placement assistance to our students. The cell also contributes by training students in mock interviews and discussions even after the course completion.
VLSI is a great career option if you are from Electronics background and to be a part of this Industry requires strong command on basics as well as good hands on knowledge of latest skills.If you want to master digital electronics and Verilog , The VLSI DM course is the best choice. It starts with an overview of VLSI and explains VLSI technology, SoC design, Moores law and the difference between ASIC and FPGA. With this overview, it walks you through all the steps of complete VLSI Design flow and explains every step in detail. Then it covers the complete digital design, combinational, sequential and FSM designs. And finally it trains you extensively on Verilog HDL programming and makes you a hands-on RTL designer..
a class on logic design, spanning combinational and sequential logic
a class on analog electronic circuits; transistor-level circuit design
a programming class, to familiarize yourself with scripting and using UNIX
yes, you can, just by knowing digital design doesn’t make you a RTL engineer, you need to know coding as well especially Verilog, UVM concepts and much more
Our courseware is designed to give a hands-on approach to the students in VLSI. The course is made up of theoretical classes that teach the basics of each module followed by high-intensity practical sessions reflecting the current challenges and needs of the industry that will demand the students’ time and commitment.
Yes it is the perfect time.
- You must be acquainted with Analog Electronics (esp. MOSFETs, Opamps etc.) and Digital Electronics (Logic Gates, FlipFlops etc.) by now to start learning VLSI concepts.
- After completing the course you can have a choice to choose your career path. For example, if you like the subject then you can choose to build your career related to VLSI and if not there is still one more year with you to decide your career path.
- Given that you find it interesting, you will get your final year to study more about VLSI and do projects which will boost your resume.
To get a basic understanding of the entire flow it might take 4–5 months with some practical experience of running blocks through the flow and learning the basic tcl and make . (Again might vary from person to person ).
VLSI is one of the best options for electronics engineers who are looking for core job. VLSI offers diverse job profiles with excellent career growth and pay packages in India and abroad.
As this is highly specialized domain, it’s quite challenging for new college grads(especially for the ones from normal engineering colleges with no placement record in core areas). This is the reason many aspiring VLSI engineers either opt for Master’s degree in VLSI or any PG Diploma Course in VLSI so as to be VLSI industry ready.
Why VLSI?
A popular talk delivered by Richard Feynman to American Physical Society at California Institute of Technology in the year of 1959. This talk at that time could foresee the possibility of the revolution which has been brought by VLSI today.
The term VLSI stands for Very Large Scale Integration. This is the field which involves packing more and more logic devices into smaller and smaller areas. VLSI circuits are everywhere … your computer, your car, your brand new state-of-the-art digital camera, the cell- phones…
The history of VLSI started way before 60 years when Jack Kilby invented “Integrated Circuit” in 1958. Integrating more electronic components (mainly transistors) on a single semiconductor base is known as Integrated Circuit. The first integrated circuits contained only a few transistors. Early digital circuits containing tens of transistors provided a few logic gates. The IC era has passed through SSI, MSI, LSI and then VLSI. These different eras have been differentiated based on the number of transistors on a single IC.
Why do we use VLSI?
VLSI is Very Large Scale Integration. VLSI is very useful for compact design. More functionalities in smaller size. VLSI IC have small power consumption as compared to discrete components circuit. VLSI can be use for different functions in compact size.
The Future of Very Large-Scale Integration (VLSI) Technology
The historical growth of IC computing power has profoundly changed the way we create, process, communicate, and store information. The engine of this phenomenal growth is the ability to shrink transistor dimensions every few years. This trend, known as Moore’s law, has continued for the past 50 years. The predicted demise of Moore’s law has been repeatedly proven wrong thanks to technological breakthroughs (e.g., optical resolution enhancement techniques, high-k metal gates, multi-gate transistors, fully depleted ultra-thin body technology, and 3-D wafer stacking). However, it is projected that in one or two decades, transistor dimensions will reach a point where it will become uneconomical to shrink them any further, which will eventually result in the end of the CMOS scaling roadmap. This essay discusses the potential and limitations of several post-CMOS candidates currently being pursued by the device community.
Steep transistors
- The ability to scale a transistor’s supply voltage is determined by the minimum voltage required to switch the device between an on- and an off-state. The sub-threshold slope (SS) is the measure used to indicate this property. For instance, a smaller SS means the transistor can be turned on using a smaller supply voltage while meeting the same off current. For MOSFETs, the SS has to be greater than ln(10) × kT/q where k is the Boltzmann constant, T is the absolute temperature, and q is the electron charge.
- This fundamental constraint arises from the thermionic nature of the MOSFET conduction mechanism and leads to a fundamental power/performance tradeoff, which could be overcome if SS values significantly lower than the theoretical 60-mV/decade limit could be achieved.
- Many device types have been proposed that could produce steep SS values, including tunneling field-effect transistors (TFETs), nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) devices, ferroelectric-gate FETs, and impact ionization MOSFETs. Several recent papers have reported experimental observation of SS values in TFETs as low as 40 mV/decade at room temperature. These so-called “steep” devices’ main limitations are their low mobility, asymmetric drive current, bias dependent SS, and larger statistical variations in comparison to traditional MOSFETs.
Spin devices
- Spintronics is a technology that utilizes nano magnets’ spin direction as the state variable. Spintronics has unique properties over CMOS, including nonvolatility, lower device count, and the potential for non-Boolean computing architectures. Spintronics devices’ nonvolatility enables instant processor wake-up and power-down that could dramatically reduce the static power consumption.
- Furthermore, it can enable novel processor-in-memory or logic-in-memory architectures that are not possible with silicon technology. Although in its infancy, research in spintronics has been gaining momentum over the past decade, as these devices could potentially overcome the power bottleneck of CMOS scaling by offering a completely new computing paradigm.
- In recent years, progress has been made toward demonstration of various post-CMOS spintronic devices including all-spin logic, spin wave devices, domain wall magnets for logic applications, and spin transfer torque magnetoresistive RAM (STT-MRAM) and spin-Hall torque (SHT) MRAM for memory applications. However, for spintronics technology to become a viable post-CMOS device platform, researchers must find ways to eliminate the transistors required to drive the clock and power supply signals. Otherwise, the performance will always be limited by CMOS technology. Other remaining challenges for spintronics devices include their relatively high active power, short interconnect distance, and complex fabrication process.
Flexible electronics
- Distributed large area (cm2-to-m2) electronic systems based on flexible thin-film-transistor (TFT) technology are drawing much attention due to unique properties such as mechanical conformability, low temperature processability, large area coverage, and low fabrication costs. Various forms of flexible TFTs can either enable applications that were not achievable using traditional silicon based technology, or surpass them in terms of cost per area. Flexible electronics cannot match the performance of silicon-based ICs due to the low carrier mobility.
- Instead, this technology is meant to complement them by enabling distributed sensor systems over a large area with moderate performance (less than 1 MHz). Development of inkjet or roll-to-roll printing techniques for flexible TFTs is underway for low-cost manufacturing, making product-level implementations feasible. Despite these encouraging new developments, the low mobility and high sensitivity to processing parameters present major fabrication challenges for realizing flexible electronic systems.
- CMOS scaling is coming to an end, but no single technology has emerged as a clear successor to silicon.
- The urgent need for post-CMOS alternatives will continue to drive high-risk, high-payoff research on novel device technologies. Replicating silicon’s success might sound like a pipe dream. But with the world’s best and brightest minds at work, we have reasons to be optimistic.
Benefits of VLSI
VLSI has many advantages:
1. Reduces the Size of Circuits.
2. Reduces the effective cost of the devices.
3. Increases the Operating speed of circuits
4. Requires less power than Discrete components.
5. Higher Reliability
6. Occupies a relatively smaller area.