• Instructor
  Prof. Bevan Baas
  

• Office hours
  Labs and TA office hours meet in 2107 Kemper Hall.
  Instructor's office hours meet in or outside the lecture room after lecture, or else in Kemper 2037.
  
  

  	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri
  Daniel Chevy dachevy@ucdavis.edu					9:10pm–12:00pm Lab A03
  Derek Li dsli@ucdavis.edu			1:10pm–4:00pm Lab A02 4:10pm–7:00pm Lab A01
  Bevan Baas		4:30pm–open	12:00pm–1:00pm	4:30pm–open

  
  

• Lecture
  TTh, 3:10pm–4:30pm
  Olson 6
  

• Textbook
  Digital Integrated Circuits, A Design Perspective
  by Rabaey, Chandrakasan, and Nikolic
  2nd edition, ISBN-13: 9780130909961

• Communication
• Course web page:   http://www.ece.ucdavis.edu/~bbaas/116/
• Email the TA for your lab section for urgent matters that cannot be handled during office hours, by in-class questions, by slack, in lab, or immediately after class. Please see the instructor at one of his office hours or after lecture rather than sending email.
• You should have been added to the 116 slack group by the TA. Here is a little slack background Here are the steps to log in:
  1. https://ucdavis.slack.com/
  2. Signin with google or your email address
  3. Choose account which is basically the ucdavis account
  4. Login with ucdavis credentials
  5. Enter the OTP that is sent to your registered mobile number.After this you have created a Slack account
• Grading: Letter
• 10%   Homework & projects (Later hwks weighted much more heavily)
• 30%   Quizzes (3)
• 25%   Final project. Done individually with a brief written report. See the past project winners and results!
• 35%   Final
• Additional course information
• Prerequisite EEC 110A or EEC 111 is required and is waived only in unusual circumstances. EEC 18 (previously 180A) is recommended.
• Suggested reference: Principles of CMOS VLSI Design, Weste and Eshraghian.

Homework/Projects

All work must be submitted at one time rather than in parts.

If the assignment is reviewed in class or solutions are made available, no credit is possible for late work. If the assignment was not reviewed in class, work may be submitted with a 1/3 reduction of remaining credit (i.e., 100% → 67% → 44% → 30% ...) per day. Unreviewed late work may be submitted with a verifiable written excuse.

Each homework sub-problem will be graded on a three-step scale: 0 (not a full effort), 1 (close but fundamental problem), and 2 (correct or with a very minor problem). For more challenging problems or those with many points, points may be multiplied, e.g., [0,2,4 pts] or [0,3,6 pts]; or graded on a similar five-step scale: 0% (not a full effort), 25% (between 0%-50%), 50% (close but fundamental problem), 75% (between 50%-100%), 100% (correct or with a very minor problem).

The Final project will be done individually and consists of the complete design of a CMOS chip including datapath, control, I/O, power distribution, clock distribution, and pad circuits.

Quizzes and Final Exam

The final exam is a mandatory component of this course. Unfortunately, no early or late exam is possible.

• Quizzes and exam(s) cover all material from assigned readings, lectures (including posted notes), homework, and projects. Some exam material may be present in only one of these sources.

• Bring pencils, eraser, calculator (sorry, no phones), colored pencils or pens, and one page of hand-written notes (both sides ok). No need to include specific device, material, or process data such as capacitance/area or resistivity; they will be provided to you on the exam if needed.

Wording of assignment problems

Open-ended design specifications by necessity have unspecified aspects. If the wording of a hwk/project/exam problem is unclear to you, briefly write any assumptions you make, solve accordingly, and you will receive full credit as long as your assumptions are reasonable and your solution is correct.

Grading Error and Exceptions

Non-obvious or very minor grading issues will not be considered—due to fairness to all students, the inherent subjectiveness of grading which is rife with both missing-points and additional-points imperfections, and because it is physically impossible to go through submitted work of every student in minute detail (which would be required for perfect fairness). To request a regrade, submit the following to the instructor: 1) a short description of the suspected grading error, 2) the following statement on your regrade request with your signature immediately below it: "I certify that I have not altered this work in any way after it was returned to me. I understand that such altering would constitute a violation of the Code of Academic Conduct." Note that to discourage falsified regrading, some number of all graded quizzes/exams will be photocopied before being returned.

Grading Errors and Exceptions

Notify the instructor of clear and significant grading errors within a week of being returned. Due to the inherent subjectiveness of grading and to be fair to all students, only truly significant mis-grades will result in a grade change. Submit to the instructor: 1) a short description of the suspected grading error, 2) the following statement on your regrade request with your signature immediately below it: "I certify that I have not altered this work in any way after it was returned to me. I understand that such altering would constitute a violation of the Code of Academic Conduct." Note that to discourage falsified regrading, some number of all graded assignments/labs/exams will be photocopied after the initial grading.

Unfortunately it is generally impossible to make exceptions to the normal flow of the course (e.g., deadlines, rescheduling exams, etc.) other than for highly unusual circumstances (e.g., a medical emergency), in which case you must submit a written verifiable excuse to the instructor.

Individual Work and Dishonesty

Unless stated otherwise, all work must be done individually—meaning done entirely by the student whose name is on the work. At the same time, discussing appropriate high-level concepts with other students are important steps in the learning process and are strongly encouraged.

The course Collaboration Policy explains the fine line between working together appropriately and inappropriately..

• Course Glossary
• Fabrication technology details
• Magic layers summary table
• Design Rules
  • DRC rule summary table
  • Special Nanometer-scale rules for EEC 116
  • Hitchhiker's guide to design rules in magic
• Wire Capacitances
• CAD Tools
• Tools, non-CAD: buy colored pens or pencils for stick diagrams. Critical colors: red, green, brown or near-brown, blue, purple.
• Working from outside Kemper 2107
• video: A few basic linux commands
• CAD Environment Setup
• Starting magic, ext2sim, and irsim
• Printing Designs
• The Magic CAD Tool
• Magic Tutorials
• Magic Macros
• A few magic tips
• The ext2sim CAD utility
• An ext2sim overview
• The IRSIM CAD Tool
• Irsim Tutorial
• Irsim Man Page
• Irsim Commands (9.7+)
• Irsim notes and tips
• Tips for debugging Magic and Irsim errors
• Tips for debugging and speeding up circuits with Magic and Irsim
• Tips for finishing your work quickly
• Backing up your work

All future items are tentative and are normally shaded gray. Changes are normally colored in green font.

Date	Reading	Lecture	Notes & Slides	Assignments	Lab
Th, September 24		Course and VLSI introduction, VLSI fabrication technologies	• Lecture 1 slides • Basic Units • 7 Basic diagrams		Lab week 0: No lab
Tue, September 29	Ch. 1	Intro II, Design styles	• Introduction II • Basics of technologies • Chip implementation methods • VLSI is like art	Read "Cramming more components onto integrated circuits," Gordon Moore, Electronics, April 19, 1965. This is the landmark paper which defined "Moore's Law." If your knowledge of static CMOS gates is rusty, read the textbook sections containing pages 180, 239, 241 for the inverter, NAND, and NOR.	Lab week 1: Setup environment and magic beforehand. Tutorials 1, 2, 3
Th, October 1	Ch. 2	Abstraction of complexity, Cost, yield	• Abstractions of complexity • VLSI costs	Hwk 1, problems 1 and 4 only. For problem 4, use the IEEE website to find papers from the 2026 International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) which is widely considered the top chip conference in the world for advanced chips. Accessing the web site is free from campus or a UCD VPN. Find the table of contents by searching for: "ISSCC 2026 Table of Contents". See the Course Glossary when helpful. Some data may not be listed in papers. Tabulate chip data for all papers in Sessions:   2 (Processors),   11 (Pipeline and ultra-high-speed data converters),   17 (Highlighted chip releases for AI), and   30 (Compute-in-memory), by searching for: "2026 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference" session x (with quotes) where x is the session number. Find the papers (which are 1 page plus figures) by searching for the title and clicking on the small red pdf icons, not links. Note: "device" = "transistor". Due Th, Oct 1, 2:45pm: Upload to canvas.
Tue, October 6	-	Ch 2: CMOS Fab I	• Fab materials & processes	"A Better Way to Measure Progress in Semiconductors," S. Moore, IEEE Spectrum, August 2020. [pdf]	Lab week 2: Tutorials 4, 5, 6 Hwk 2, due Fri, Oct 9, 12:15pm
Th, October 8	Ch 3: pp. 116-117 (latchup).	Quiz 1 CMOS Fab II, Full-custom layout, Design rules, Stick diagrams, Magic abstractions vs. GDSII,	• Photomasks • Three fab examples • Advanced metal interconnect examples • Full-custom layout & magic • Design rules
Tue, October 13	Ch 5.1-5.3.2 Ch 5.4-5.4.2	Layout guidelines,	• Multi‑project wafer organizations   – MOSIS, LA   – Muse Semi [notes], SanJose   – CMP, France • Stick diagrams • Magic vs. GDSII/CIF • Layout Guidelines (hand drawn)	"Morris Chang: Foundry Father (TSMC)," T. Perry, IEEE Spectrum, April 2011.	Lab week 3: Tutorials 8 and 11 (Sec. 4 only)
Th, October 15	Ch 3: pp. 104-113. Sec 4.3.2: pp. 144-146 [resis­tance]	Layout guidelines II,
Tue, October 20		Layout guidelines III, Nwell, pwell, and their contacts Latchup, Ch 5: CMOS inverter characteristics I	• VLSI In The News: Undersea datacenter	"How the Father of FinFETs Helped Save Moore's Law," T. Perry, IEEE Spectrum, April 2020.	Lab week 4: Simulating layout. Work through Irsim Tutorial.
Th, October 22		Ch 5: CMOS inverter characteristics II robustness;
Tue, October 27	Ch 3: Sec. 3.5 [scaling]	Quiz 2 Fanout, fanin; FO4 Inverter performance Ch 3: MOS resistance	• Notes-ch3	Read "The Fanout-of-4 Inverter Delay Metric," David Harris, et al., unpublished, ˜1997 which introduces the concept of the "FO4" delay metric.	Lab week 5: Irsim simulator Hwk 3, due Fri Oct 30, 12:15pm
Th, October 29	Ch 7: pp. 326-334, 344-346, 358-360, 368-372 [seq. circuits]	MOS capacitances Sheet resistance, Ch 3: Scaling, Ch 7: Sequential circuits, clocking,
Tue, November 3	Ch 5.4.3 [overall perf.]	Ch 7 II: ring oscs, latches and flip-flops	• Flip-flop schematics	"Design of Ion-Implanted MOSFET's with Very Small Physical Dimensions," Robert H. Dennard, et al., IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, October 1974. This is the landmark paper which defined "Dennard Scaling." Read pages 257, 258, and "Cir. Perf. with Scaled..." section on pages 264–266. Skim the rest. He uses κ for what we call S.	Lab week 6: Flip-flops
Th, November 5		CMOS inverters: sizing for performance
Tue, November 10	Ch 6: pp. 236-251, 269-271 [comb. CMOS] Ch 6: pp. 277-280 (pass-trans)	Sizing for performance II, Chain of inverters design,	• VLSI In The News: World's Largest Chip • Chain of inverters		Lab week 7: Flip-flop cells Hwk 4, due Fri Nov 13, 12:15pm
Wed, November 11		Happy Veterans Day  No labs Wed Nov 11, or Fri Nov 13.
Th, November 12	Ch 4 (Wires)	Quiz 3 Ch 6: Combinational CMOS logic gates static,
Tue, November 17	Ch 9: pp. 445-462 (pads, grids,...).	ratioed, dynamic, pass-tranistor	• VLSI In The News: Nano Sheets	"The Nanosheet Transistor is the Next (and Maybe Last) Step in Moore's Law," P. Ye, IEEE Spectrum, July 2019.	Lab week 8: More complex cells
Th, November 19	Sec. 9.3.2: pp. 462-464 (electro­migration). Ch 12: pp. 623-634, 657-662, skim 663-669, 672-674 (memories).	Transmission-gates Wires	• VLSI In The News: Samsung $17B plant in Austin, TX • Wires • OnChipInductors	"Big Trouble in Little Interconnects," S. Moore, IEEE Spectrum, January 2023.
Tue, November 24	Ch 8: pp. 377-388, 396-406, 423 (imple­men­ta­tions). Ch H: pp. 721-737 (test).	Std cell P&R chip design Chip-level structures and issues I,	• VLSI In The News: Backside power in TSMC's 2nm node • Graphene wires • Std cell design • Histogram: quiz 1 • Histogram: quiz 2 • Histogram: current total	"Next-Gen Chips Will Be Powered From Below," B. Cline, IEEE Spectrum, August 2021.	Lab week 9: Adders Hwk 5, due TBD.
Th, November 26		Happy Thanksgiving
Tue, December 1		Chip-level structures and issues II	• VLSI In The News: Chip shortage and Qualcomm		Lab week 10: Chip-level structures Hwk 6, due Fri Dec 8, 12:15pm
Th, December 3		FIB edits, Spare gates, Packaging, Ref: Memories, Ref: Multipliers,	• Electromigration (chip issue) • FIB editing • Spare gates • Packaging • Datasheet 132-pin PGA • Ref:Memories • Ref:Multipliers	"Single-Chip Processors Have Reached Their Limits (Chiplets)," M. Smith, IEEE Spectrum, April 2022.
Extra office hours to be posted.
Wed, December 9, 1:00pm–3:00pm			Final exam (notes)
Th, December 10 10:00 am: Deadline to upload files to canvas 10:00 am–6:30 pm Functional demonstration to TA in 2107, last chance Sign up ONLY ONCE: Reservation spreadsheet to be posted.			Final project to be posted.

A Few Advanced Topics (optional references)

• "ISSCC Plenary Keynote: Advancing horizons for AI: perspectivees on semiconductor innovations," Rick Rsai, CEO MediaTek, ISSCC, Feb 2026.


• "Moore's Law: A path going forward," Holt, ISSCC, Feb 2016. This paper has great scaling data on page 4 in Figs. 1.1.1, 1.1.2, and 1.1.4


• "22 nm Next-Generation IBM System z Microprocessor," Warnock, et al., ISSCC, Feb 2015. This paper describes a monster 5.2 GHz 678 mm² 17-metal-layer 22 nm IBM 2-chip system.


• "Scaling Challenges of FinFET Architecture below 40nm Contacted Gate Pitch," Razavieh, et al., Device Research Conf., June 2017. Detailed recent paper giving an overview of FinFET transistors with gate lengths as small as 7 nm. (note 7 nm has contacted gate pitch of 48 nm which is 13.7 λ)


• "Is Dark Silicon Useful?," Taylor, et al., Design Automation Conf. (DAC), June 2012. This is the landmark paper which describes "Dark Silicon."

• A wide variety of die photos at: http://diephotos.blogspot.com/, most of which appear to be older-generation full-custom designs.

• Intel: From sand to silicon - the making of a chip

• Intel: Intel Microprocessor Hall of Fame

• Transistor counts of a large number of chips

• Zoom Into a Microchip
  Approximately 0.5 μm technology since polysilicon appears to be about half of the 1.0 μm line around time 2:08. Note that the 20 nm × 20 nm squares shown around time 2:30 could contain the length of a 20 nm transistor, but not the entire transistor itself.
  

• Sand to Silicon—the Making of a Chip (Intel)
  

• How do they make silicon wafers and computer chips? (begin at silicon ingot portion)
  

• Microscopic view of an Intel i486 (1.0 μm–0.6 μm, 16–33 MHz, 1.2 million transistors, 1989)
  

• The Making of a Chip with 22nm/3D Transistors (Intel)
  

• 32 nanometer high-k metal gate chips
  Chartered, Freescale, Infineon, and Samsung. 2007. Overview of 32 nanometer high-k metal gate chips and IBM, AMD, Chartered, Freescale, Infineon, and Samsung. 2007.
  

• SMT component sizes
  SMT component size comparisons from a classic through-hole component to SMT 0805, 0603, 0402, 0201, 01005, and other components.
  

• Takaya 9600 flying probe tester dual side
  A high-speed printed-circuit-board (PCB) "flying probe" continuity and short detector
  

• VLSI In The News: Intel 10nm
• VLSI In The News: 7nm SoC chips
  
• VlsiInTheNews, Move Over Graphene: IBM Expects Copper Interconnects to Hold the CMOS Line, November 16, 2017
• VlsiInTheNews, Hearing aid, April 15, 2008
• VlsiInTheNews
• VlsiInTheNews
• VlsiInTheNews
• VlsiInTheNews
• VlsiInTheNews, May 21, 2007