Course

Analog IC Design, Introduction | VLSI.X401

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Today's mobile, wireless, and consumer electronics employ ASICs and high integration SOCs (System on Chip) that often include the analog blocks for signal processing and the associated analog-to-digital interface circuits. Most MEMS, sensors, photovoltaic and electro-optical devices also require analog components. Understanding the basics of analog IC is essential for application engineers as well as circuit and system designers in a wide variety of electronic fields.

This course introduces analog IC design fundamentals including single/multiple-transistor amplifiers, current mirrors, current/voltage reference, output stages, frequency response, feedback, stability, noise, nonlinearity, and mismatches. Transistor models and CAD tools for analog design will also be covered. Students will gain a basic understanding of analog IC design and become familiar with circuit analysis and simulation tool flow. The fundamentals presented in this course prepare students to tackle advanced analog IC topics such as Op-amp, PLL, ADC and DAC.

Students will have access to simulation and waveform tools to test the performance of analog IC designs in our lab. Upon completion, students will have gained experience with circuit simulation and an in-depth understanding of the basic analog functions in IC.

Learning Outcomes:
At the conclusion of the course, you should be able to:

• Identify basic building blocks in analog integrated circuits
• Analyze performance parameters such as gain, impedance, and bandwidth using small-signal models
• Design analog ICs of small to medium complexity and verify them using simulation tools

Skills Needed: Basic knowledge of microelectronics circuits, semiconductor devices and physics. Experience with UNIX/Linux systems and commands is required for the lab.