Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

Introduction to Microelectronics Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich VLSI I: Architectures of VLSI Circuits last update: April 8, 2009

Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

Worldwide semiconductor market by vendors (2007) Revenue Share Share Vendor [GUSD] [%] [%] Intel 33.80 12.3 Samsung Electronics 20.46 7.5 Toshiba 11.82 4.3 Texas Instruments 11.77 4.3 Infineon + Qimonda 10.20 3.7 ST-Microelectronics 9.97 3.6 Hynix 9.10 3.3 Renesas 8.00 2.9 AMD 5.88 2.1 NXP 5.87 2.1 others 147.05 53.8 Total 237.91 100 0.49 for comparison World GDP (2006) 48 462 100 source: Gartner March 2008 and www.worldbank.org May 2008 Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ...

Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

Economic leverage of semiconductors I

Microelectronics has a much larger impact on world economy, however, because it is acting as a technology driver for I

Computer and software industry

I

Telecommunications and media industry

I

Commerce, logistics and transportation

I

Natural science and medicine

I

Power generation and distribution

I

Finance and administration

Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

Economic leverage of semiconductors II EDA software & virtual components

2006: 248 GUSD/y

Semiconductor components Electronic components Electronic goods (computers, mobile phones, home entertainment equipment, etc.)

World-wide gross domestic product

2006: 48.2 TUSD/y

Applications: • Goods with embedded electronics (machines, cars, cameras, watches, etc.) • Information technology services (corporate IT, Internet, music download, etc.)

Figure: Impact of microelectronics on “downstream” industries and services.

Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

Microelectronics drives the information age

I

Microelectronics has an enormous economic leverage as any progress there spurs innovations in “downstream” industries and services.

I

While computing, telecommunication, and entertainment products existed before the advent of microelectronics, today’s information society would not have been possible without.

Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

Microelectronics drives the information age

I

Microelectronics has an enormous economic leverage as any progress there spurs innovations in “downstream” industries and services.

I

While computing, telecommunication, and entertainment products existed before the advent of microelectronics, today’s information society would not have been possible without.

⇒ Microelectronics is the enabler of information technology.

Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

Impact of semiconductors on consumer goods I

Figure: Four products that take advantage of microelectronics. Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

Impact of semiconductors on consumer goods II

Figure: Similar products that include no large-scale integrated circuits.

Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

Impact of semiconductors on consumer goods III

Figure: A product that has brought system integration to even higher levels.

Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

The The The The The

Guiness book of records point of view marketing point of view fabrication point of view design engineer’s point of view business point of view

The Guiness book of records point of view “How large is that circuit?” I

Geometric chip size

I

Transistor count

I

Gate-equivalents 1 GE 7→ 1 two-input nand 7→ 4 MOSFETs in static CMOS logic

Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

The The The The The

Guiness book of records point of view marketing point of view fabrication point of view design engineer’s point of view business point of view

The Guiness book of records point of view “How large is that circuit?” I

Geometric chip size

I

Transistor count

I

Gate-equivalents 1 GE 7→ 1 two-input nand 7→ 4 MOSFETs in static CMOS logic

circuit complexity small-scale integration (SSI) medium-scale integration (MSI) large-scale integration (LSI) very-large-scale integration (VLSI) ultra-large-scale integration (ULSI)

GEs of logic + bits of memory 1 ... 10 10 ... 100 100 ... 10 000 10 000 ... 1 000 000 1 000 000 ...

Hint: state storage capacities separately from logic complexity, e.g. 75 000 GE of logic + 32 Kibit SRAM + 512 bit flash ≈ 108 000 GE Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

The The The The The

Guiness book of records point of view marketing point of view fabrication point of view design engineer’s point of view business point of view

What you ought to know about logic families A logic family is a collection of digital subfunctions that • assemble to arbitrary logic, arithmetic and storage functions • are compatible among themselves electrically • share a common fabrication technology Acronym MOS FET BJT CMOS static CMOS dynamic CMOS TTL ECL BiCMOS

Meaning Metal Oxide Semiconductor. Field Effect Transistor (n- or p-channel) Bipolar Junction Transistor (npn or pnp) Complementary MOS (circuit or technology) data stored in bistable subcircuits and retained data stored as electrical charges to be refreshed Transistor Transistor Logic (BJTs & passive devices) Emitter-Coupled Logic (non-saturating logic) CMOS & bipolar devices on a single chip

Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

2-input nand gate in various technologies

The The The The The

VDD

Guiness book of records point of view marketing point of view fabrication point of view design engineer’s point of view business point of view VCC

VDD

IN1 OUP

technological evolution

IN2

OUP IN1

IN2

IN2

OUP

IN1

b)

VSS

VSS

c)

GND

e)

VCC1

device

VCC2

(NAND) OUP1

MOSFET

pnp

n-channel

npn

icon

(AND) OUP2

IN1

approximate voltage-controlled current-controlled current source current source behavior

IN2

depletion device

variations

bias section shared with other gates g)

BJT

p-channel

device

resistor

diode

icon

VEE

Figure: Static CMOS (c), NMOS (b), early TTL (e), and ECL circuit (g). Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

The The The The The

Guiness book of records point of view marketing point of view fabrication point of view design engineer’s point of view business point of view

The marketing point of view “How do functionality and target markets relate to each other?” General-purpose IC. Examples are either very simple or very generic. Simple circuit: gates, flip-flops, counters, etc. Generic functionality: RAMs, ROMs, microcomputers, FPL, etc.

Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

The The The The The

Guiness book of records point of view marketing point of view fabrication point of view design engineer’s point of view business point of view

The marketing point of view “How do functionality and target markets relate to each other?” General-purpose IC. Examples are either very simple or very generic. Simple circuit: gates, flip-flops, counters, etc. Generic functionality: RAMs, ROMs, microcomputers, FPL, etc. Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). I

I

Application-specific standard product (ASSP): designed for a specific task and sold to various customers. Examples: graphics accelerators, cellular radio chip sets, smart card chips, etc. User-specific integrated circuit (USIC): designed and produced for a single company. Examples: audio processor for hearing aids, etc.

Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

The The The The The

Guiness book of records point of view marketing point of view fabrication point of view design engineer’s point of view business point of view

A first IC classification scheme SSI

general purpose

MSI

LSI

counter logic gate

parallel multiplier

VLSI computer interface

ULSI

hardware complexity

. . . . memory [and still more memory] . . . . . . . . program-controlled processor . . . . . . . . field-programmable logic devices . . . . (before getting programmed)

functionality

applicationspecific

mobile radio spatial diversity base-band transceiver processor error-correcting video data encoder/decoder compressor

digital filter glue logic

. . . . "system on a chip (SoC) " . . . .

Figure: ICs classified as a function of functionality and hardware complexity.

Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

The The The The The

Guiness book of records point of view marketing point of view fabrication point of view design engineer’s point of view business point of view

A first glimpse at VLSI manufacturing

few masks made to order for one design all masks made to order for one design

unprocessed wafer

a)

most masks shared with other designs

preprocessed wafer

b)

Figure: Full-custom (a) and semi-custom (b) masks sets compared. Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

The The The The The

Guiness book of records point of view marketing point of view fabrication point of view design engineer’s point of view business point of view

Semi-custom fabrication I

preprocessed master

a)

Figure: Prefabricated gate array site.

Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

The The The The The

Guiness book of records point of view marketing point of view fabrication point of view design engineer’s point of view business point of view

Semi-custom fabrication II + custom metallization

b)

Figure: Custom contact and metal masks.

Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

The The The The The

Guiness book of records point of view marketing point of view fabrication point of view design engineer’s point of view business point of view

Semi-custom fabrication III = customized circuit

not used not used

c)

Figure: Site customized into a 2-input NAND gate.

Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

The The The The The

Guiness book of records point of view marketing point of view fabrication point of view design engineer’s point of view business point of view

Evolution of semi-custom floorplans row of prefabricated gate-array sites row of prefabricated transistor pairs predefined routing channel routing channel only where needed input/output pad utilized devices unutilized areas

GA

a)

availability of multiple metal layers

SOG

b)

Figure: Channeled gate-array (a) versus channelless semi-custom circuits (b).

Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

The The The The The

Guiness book of records point of view marketing point of view fabrication point of view design engineer’s point of view business point of view

Field-programmable logic I

No dedicated layout structures, no dedicated photomasks. Customization is via purely electrical means.

I

“Programmable” is a misnomer as there is no instruction sequence to execute. “Configurable” is more accurate as pre-manufactured subcircuits are made to form the target circuit.

I

All configuration technologies today have their roots in semiconductor memory technology.

I

Benefits compared to mask-programmed ASICs: I I

Easy and extremely fast to modify (highly agile). Solutions for testability, I/O subcircuits, clock and power distribution, embedded memories, etc. all come at no extra effort shut in the FPL component.

⇒ FPL can be thought as “soft hardware”. Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

The The The The The

Guiness book of records point of view marketing point of view fabrication point of view design engineer’s point of view business point of view

The fabrication point of view (summary)

“To what extent is a circuit manufactured to user specs?” Full-custom IC: all fabrication layers, full set of photomasks. Semi-custom IC (gate array, sea-of-gates, structured ASIC): a few metal layers only, subset of photomasks. Field-programmable logic (SPLD, CPLD, FPGA): customization occurs electrically, no masks involved. Standard part: catalog part with no customization whatsoever aka commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) component.

Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

The The The The The

Guiness book of records point of view marketing point of view fabrication point of view design engineer’s point of view business point of view

The design engineer’s point of view “Which levels of detail are being addressed during a part’s design?” Hand layout:

Desired geometric shapes manually drawn to scale.

Cell-based design by means of schematic entry: Manual schematic entry automatic place & route. Automatic circuit synthesis: Manual HDL or SW code writing generation. I I I

automatic netlist

Logic synthesis Register transfer level (RTL) synthesis Architecture or high-level synthesis

Design with virtual components: Purchase of HDL code

Dr. Hubert Kaeslin Microelectronics Design Center ETH Z¨ urich

automatic netlist generation.

Introduction to Microelectronics

Economic impact Concepts and terminology Design flow in digital VLSI Field-programmable logic Appendix I: A brief glossary of logic families

The The The The The

Guiness book of records point of view marketing point of view fabrication point of view design engineer’s point of view business point of view

Views of a library cell (or of any other subcircuit)

INA INB INC

entity nor3 is generic ( tpd : time := 1.0 ns ); port ( INA, INB, INC : in StdLogic; OUP : out StdLogic ); end nor3;

OUP

a) b)

architecture procedural of nor3 is begin OUP