APEX Center - Overview

Like the art of mountaineering, Semiconductor Technology is a very

practically oriented science with very high peaks that few can scale
Working professionals in industry are at different levels of height in
terms of expertise
High-end expertise is to be found only in very small pockets within
the industry and academia across the globe
Due to fast pace of innovation, Industry and Academia need to come
closely together for pursuing Applied Research
At BITS-RIT APEX Center, we will attempt to bring together top
experts from industry and academia to help the working
professionals attain global heights in professional excellence
Applied research will be a key focus through close collaboration with
industry and top academic institutions

Birla Institute of Technology & Science

Pilani, Rajasthan

RAMLAB

Goals

Applied Research
Education

PhD Program for working professional

& full time students

Short Courses to meet specific

industry needs

Projects sponsored by Indian & US

semiconductor Industry

Structural Masters degree

program

Active research collaboration between

RIT & BITS faculty
Exchange of researchers between RIT
& BITS

Birla Institute of Technology & Science

Pilani, Rajasthan

RAMLAB

Program for Professional Excellence

A world-class education, training, and hands-on program offered in

Bangalore
To upgrade skills of VLSI professionals and managers to the
world-class level
Offered by the best faculty members and industry professionals
from India and across the world
OLAB extension will be set up at the center in Bangalore with
state-of-the-art EDA tools
Offered to professionals from Center Affiliates companies
The program will consist of multiple courses and access to OLAB
Each course will be a complete unit in itself with appropriate credits
awarded from BITS - Pilani
Accumulation of enough credits and completion of a thesis will entitle
for a masters degree from BITS
Will be taught by some of the best faculty and Industry professionals
from India and abroad

Birla Institute of Technology & Science

Pilani, Rajasthan

RAMLAB

BITS-RIT Collaboration
BITS will take ownership in setting up the center, the labs, the equipment

and the management responsibilities for the center. All investments towards
this will come from BITS
BITS will also drive the Professional Excellence Program with involvement
from faculty from RIT as well as from across the world
Award of degrees / certificates for Professional Excellence programs will be
managed by BITS
RIT will play the lead role in Applied Research, particularly in the area of RF,
Analog and Mixed Signal Design with involvement from BITS faculty and
others in Industry
Prof. P. R. Mukund, Director RAMLAB at RIT will be visiting Bangalore often
to supervise the research programs.
At least one or more research associates from RAMLAB of RIT will be
located in Bangalore to carry on with the applied research work.
PhD degrees may be awarded by RIT and BITS jointly or separately
depending on the nature of association of the lead researchers
BITS and RIT will jointly promote the center

Birla Institute of Technology & Science

Pilani, Rajasthan

RAMLAB

Course Structure
Each course will normally be about 20-30 people and will

have a tuition fee of about INR 10K 30K per course per
student (including access to OLAB as well)
These courses will be offered as

intensive courses (10 to 30 hours of teaching over

a period of one, two or three weeks), or
over a semester

Birla Institute of Technology & Science

Pilani, Rajasthan

RAMLAB

Corporate Sponsors
Each interested company will become a Corporate Sponsor for the

Center with an annual fee of INR 75K INR 200K based on their
employee strength
Corporate Sponsors will also be able to provide input on courses
offered and choice of faculty members
Corporate Sponsors will ensure that the Center remains world class
and dynamic
Annual Corporate Sponsorship Fee
Employee Strength < 50
: INR 75K
Employee Strength 50-100
: INR 125K
Employee Strength > 100
: INR 200K

Birla Institute of Technology & Science

Pilani, Rajasthan

RAMLAB

Corporate Sponsorship Benefits

Professionals from Sponsor Companies will be given

preference in enrollment in these courses
Representatives from sponsor Companies will be invited to be
a member of the Technical Advisory Board to guide the
Center to meet their specific needs and the needs of Indian
Semiconductor Industry.
Professionals from their companies would be able to enroll for
an M. Eng. Degree from BITS and credit these courses
towards their degree program.
Resources of the center will be extended for research and
development including supervision for Ph.D. programs.
Corporate Sponsor will be able to directly benefit from this
activity.

Birla Institute of Technology & Science

Pilani, Rajasthan

RAMLAB

Suggested List of Courses

VLSI Technology and Systems
Foundation Courses

Hours

Lab

Introduction to VLSI Technology

18

No

Fundamentals of ASIC design

30

Yes

Digital Design using Verilog

30

Yes

Design for Test

30

Yes

FPGA Design with Xilinx

30

Yes

Integrated Circuit Packaging

15

No

Principles of Logic Synthesis

30

Yes

Custom Layout of Integrated Circuits

30

Yes

Birla Institute of Technology & Science

Pilani, Rajasthan

RAMLAB

Suggested List of Courses

VLSI Technology and Systems
Advanced Courses

Hours

Lab

Phase-Locked Loop Systems and Clock Gen

Circuits

15

Yes

Signal Integrity Analysis for Integrated Circuit

Interfacing

15

Yes

Advanced ASIC Physical Design

30

Yes

Advanced Static Timing Analysis

15

Yes

Circuit Modeling and Simulation

15

No

Advanced HDL Coding Techniques

15

Yes

RF Design

30

Yes

Low Power Design Techniques

15

No

Design of System Level Test Benches

15

Yes

Birla Institute of Technology & Science

Pilani, Rajasthan

RAMLAB

Suggested List of Courses

VLSI Technology and Systems
Programming

Hours

Lab

30

Yes

Real-Time Programming and Embedded

Systems Design

30

Yes

Embedded and Real-Time Linux

30

Yes

Practical Digital Signal Processing

30

Yes

Perl Scripting for Electronic Design

Automation
Embedded Systems, DSP and misc.
hardware engineering

Birla Institute of Technology & Science

Pilani, Rajasthan

RAMLAB

Other Possible Courses

In addition to the courses on VLSI, the scope

may be expanded to offer additional practice

oriented courses relevant for Industry
Few Practitioners Courses identified

Software Testing
Technical Writing
Embedded SW development
Bio-Technology

Birla Institute of Technology & Science

Pilani, Rajasthan

RAMLAB

Value Proposition for Professionals

Never before opportunity to enrich knowledge and

expertise where it matters

Learn from best in class experts from all over the world,
right here
Opportunity for people not having a Masters degree to
earn one through part-time route
Opportunity for pursuing research through PhD
enrollments, while working
A stronger alternative to distance learning options
available from US based universities

Birla Institute of Technology & Science

Pilani, Rajasthan

RAMLAB

Value Proposition for Industry

Move up the value chain through skills and

expertise gained
Possible avenue for better employee retention
Compelling cost structure to try new ideas
Excellent design infrastructure
Instant access to university expertise on
fundamental knowledge

Birla Institute of Technology & Science

Pilani, Rajasthan

RAMLAB

Value Proposition for Faculty

Chance to contribute to Indias success

especially for NRI industry professionals &

professors coming from overseas
Chance for strategic relationship with Indian
University system
Joint research programs with BITS and working
professionals from industry in India
Better understanding of the emerging markets
Opportunity for fulfilling the passion for teaching
World class remuneration
Birla Institute of Technology & Science
Pilani, Rajasthan

RAMLAB

Value Proposition for Academia

Through continuous interaction and help from the top experts

participating in BITS-RIT APEX programs, academic curriculums at

the University will be constantly enhanced to keep pace with the
latest
Some of the courses offered at BITS-RIT APEX center will be
beamed remotely to the university campuses through video
conferencing with an option for the students at the campus to enroll
against credits. BITS may consider extending such facilities to other
interested universities as well at a future date
Plan to fund fundamental and applied research at the university with
the resources generated at the BITS-RIT APEX center
Chance to contribute to growth of Indias semiconductor industry by
facilitating high end talent generation and applied research
programs
Birla Institute of Technology & Science
Pilani, Rajasthan

RAMLAB

OLAB (Oysters Lab)

BITS - Pilani

VLSI DESIGN LABORATORY

Integrated efforts of BITS, BITS Alumni

and Industry Professionals

Birla Institute of Technology & Science

Pilani, Rajasthan

OLAB at BITS, Pilani

RAMLAB

OLAB - Industry Sponsors

Open Silicon

Mentor Graphics
CADENCE
SUN
Microsystems

WIPRO

OLAB FACILITIES

 A powerful centralized compute server

farm for EDA tools in Layer 1

Sun Fire v250, NAS 3300 & SDLT320
Sun Ray software
EDA tools & user files
Automatic tape back-up

 Number of powerful SUNSPARC workstations

as compute servers in layer 2 :

20 Ultra 2 Enterprise server-class workstations
Computing share through Sun Grid Engine
40 SUN THIN Clients as nodes in layer 3.
Connected with 1.0 Gbps network
connectivity

 Tool Suite from MAGMA

(About 15 sets of licenses of back-end

design tools for mixed signal and a
complete package for RTL to GDS flow)
Tool Suite From CADENCE
Foundry access for fabrication of parts
FPGA design infrastructure for prototyping

OLAB ACTIVITIES
Students of M.E. Microelectronics for
conducting
laboratory sessions
Students of First Degree Programme
for courses
in the area of VLSI Design
To Facilitate Research activities
To conduct short term courses for
Industry
Professionals
To support entrepreneurs in
Technology

A Sample list Dissertation projects

-Design of CISC Microprocessor ( M68010 c

-Design of Application Specific Instruction s

for text to speech conversion
-Design of A/D and D/A converters
-Design of switched capacitor circuits

-Design of a CAD tool for synthesis of OPAM

Currently a Project on ZigBee

enabled wireless sensor network is
taken up with joint efforts of faculty,
students and BITS Alumni.

Master/Controller module

Sensor/Slave module
Processor

Host I/F

Processor
&
Peripherals

Analog
interface
Circuits
(ADC/DAC)

RF Circuitry
(Wireless
transceivers)

RF Circuitry
(Wireless
transceivers)

Sensors
interface
Circuits

Processors and wireless

transceivers are the same for
both the master and slave
modules.

Sensor/Slave module
Processor
RF Circuitry
(Wireless
transceivers)

Sensors
interface
Circuits

WIRELESS MESHED SENSOR NETWORK ARCHITECTURE

OLAB will support a full chip

design capability at BITS through
state-of-the-art EDA tools

RF/Analog/Mixed Signal Lab (RAMLAB)

RF/Analog/Mixed signal Laboratory (RAMLAB)

Dept. of Electrical Engineering
Building 9, 3rd Floor, Room 3271
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester, NY 14623

RAMLAB - Overview
Semiconductor Research
Corporation

AMLAB specializes in developing cutting edge design

solutions for RF, analog and mixed signal circuits
People:

Technology Used:

Intel Corporation

Research Faculty

0.25 um TSMC
Graduate Students
CMOS
0.25 um IBM CMOS
Distinguished Researcher

Harris
Corporation

Equipment:
Unix Workstations with Cadence
Suite
ATE with probe station, spectrum
analyzer & Network Analyzer for RF
Characterization
Industry Liaisons
Ph.D. Students
Anand Gopalan
Sripriya Bandi
Tejasvi Das

National Science
Foundation

Sharmila Sridharan
Mark Pude
Jeff Lillie

Eastman Kodak
Company
Kawasaki LSI
LSI Logic

RAMLAB

RAMLAB - Current Projects

Chip-Package Co-Design Of RF-Mixed signal

Microsystems

Built in Self Test Strategies for RF/Mixed Signal

Systems

High-speed circuit design and Characterization

Mixed-Signal IC Design beyond 10 GHz

RAMLAB

Collaboration with Harris Corporation

Work with Harris Corporation

VDD

Tunable Wideband LNA Design

R1
LD
M3
R2
LG

M2
M1
LS

LNA Schematic

RF Front end circuitry is designed to be either

only narrowband or wideband.
For military applications wherein frequency
hopping is popular for secure communications,
the above mentioned circuitry is not suitable.
Objective: design tunable RF LNA with very wide
frequency range and very fine selectivity
Simulation Results

Simulation results summary

Noise Figure v/s frequency

LNA was fabricated on a
10mm^2 Chip using IBMs
0.25um CMOS RF 6-metal layer
process

Input return loss S11 v/s frequency

RAMLAB

Chip-Package Co-Design

Chip-Package Co-Design of RF Microsystems

Research Objectives
To analyze different functional blocks in a RF microsystem,
in the 2-5GHz range for Chip-Package Co-Design, and develop
a software package that performs early analysis of various
functional blocks

Convert intricate analysis into a set of simple

design rules that can be used by the designer
Make trade-off analysis simpler
Make intricate problems opaque
to the designer
First Time Right
Lower time to market

Accomplishments
Circuit Components Designed and
Fabricated using IBMs 0.25um
CMOS
Low Noise Amplifier
Single Balanced Mixer
Low Phase Noise VCO

Early Design Software Developed

for Chip-Package Co-Design
DREAM
Suited for Early Design
Applications are diverse including
RF, Mixed Signal, Digital and Power
Distribution

G. Nayak, P.R. Mukund, Chip-Package Co-Design of a Heterogeneously Integrated 2.45GHz CMOS

VCO using embedded passives in a silicon package, 17th International Conference on VLSI Design and
3rd International Conference on Embedded Systems, Mumbai, India, January 2004

Integrated Passive Design

Embedded Inductor on Si Substrates
Developed Inductor Library for Embedded
Process
Development of Design Rules& Methodologies
Design constraints of ESD protection circuitry
Vertically Integrated Designs Developed

RAMLAB

DREAM: Digital-RF Early Analysis Methodology

Digital Pin
Placement
Mixed Signal
Analysis

A/D and
Op-Amp
Analysis

Design Methodologies
RF
Modules

Passive
Characterization

Horizontal
Floor Planning

Digital
Modules

RF Design
Digital Logic
Vertical
MEMS
Integration
Quality Factor

Novel Design
Techniques

RF

Inductor
Library
40

Phase Noise Analysis for VCO &

Sideband Analysis for Mixer

L1 of f chip
L2 of f chip
L1 on chip
L2 on chip

35
30

Power
Distribution

2D and 3D Analysis for

Power Distribution Analys

Early Design Software DREAM

25
20
15
10
5
Frequency(GHz)
0
0

Inductor Libraries
for RF Design

Inductor Modeling
and Characterization
Vertically Integrated Designs
(Si on Si)

RAMLAB

Application Specific Reduced Order

Modeling Technique
Change in S11
due to package

Pin Functionality,
RF Circuit

Package
RLC Models

Proposed SiP Design Methodology

Krylovs
Sub Space
Models

Application
Specific Reduced
Order Models

S-parameters comparison with and without

package parasitics

RFIC Design
Model Reduction for power pin

Equivalent circuit model for ground pin

Lw

Original
curve
Order: 27

Model Reduction for signal pin

S11

Order = 5
Original curve
Order = 27

Rg
Lg

SiP Design
Methodology

Order: 7

Cg

Order = 6

Order: 6
Order: 5

G. Nayak, C. Washburn, P.R. Mukund, System in a Package Design of a RF Front End System using
Application Specific Reduced Order Models ,Accepted at the 18th International Conference on VLSI Design
and 4th International Conference on Embedded Systems, Calcutta, India, January 2005

RAMLAB

Built-In-Self Test (BiST) for RF

systems
Semiconductor Research
Corporation

RAMLAB

Motivation RF Testing Challenges

Probe
s

Si
Die

RF Design

Very act of probing can

affect circuit performance
Access to RF core difficult
RF
Testing
Passives

Factors affecting RF Circuit

reliability
Process Variations
Tolerances of Package
Parasitics
Quality of Passives: soft faults

CHI
P
Bond Wire

CHIPCARRIER

RAMLAB

Current sensor for GHz applications

Requirements of a sensor
High Bandwidth
Low Sensitivity to process
variations
High Dynamic Range
High Sensitivity

Stage 1: Sensing Resistor (Rs) +

Source Follower
Stage 2: Inverting Amplifier
Stage 3: Current Amplifying Cell

DESIGN FEATURES
Sensing Resistor 7
Feedback structure
Reduction in number of Gain
Addition of bypass capacitor

Stages

RAMLAB

BiST for LNA, Mixer, VCO

Low real estate and power
overheads!!
Similar techniques can be used
to quantify
Output Match (S22), Gain (S21),
and Linearity (1dB compression)
of LNA
Entire self-test can be carried
out in less than 20s.
1.9GHz LNA and BIST circuit
fabricated in IBM 0.25 micron

RAMLAB

Self-Calibrating RF circuits
Inability to probe RFICs
directly

Probe
s

Si
Die

RF Design

Limitations of existing RFIC

testing
010010101000
010101001000
111001000011
000010101000
010101011111

RF
Testing

High Cost $$

Limitations of Co-Design

Wide tolerance ranges of package

parasitics

Dependence of E.S.D. protection on

environmental conditions

Package portability

Design time and cost

Time Intensive

Use of DSPs

Can detect
but not
correct faults

Hence, a circuit topology

that dynamically self-corrects its
performance in the presence of
process faults and package
parasitics is desired!

RAMLAB

Self-Calibration: Methodology
Sense
Amplifier
Start with
nominal RF ckt

Sense current
with minimally
intrusive
element

Peak Detector

Amplify sensed
current

Down-convert
signal to
baseband

Map signal to
performance
metric

RF CIRCUIT
Dynamically modify
design parameters in
RF circuit

Generate
baseband/digital
signal to modify
design parameters

Figure 3. Proposed Methodology for selfcorrection of input match.

NO

Baseband
Signal
Processing

Performanc
e metric
ok?
YES
3
End
Calibration
process

Self-correction on-the-fly

Robust -> Two-tonal approach

Non-intrusive current sensing

Cuts down design cycle cost and

time

Baseband processing

Low overheads

RAMLAB

Self-Calibration: Results
S11 curves before
and after
calibration.
(a) when a parasitic
inductance of
1nH is added.
(b) when CGS of the
LNA transistor is
reduced by
10%.
S11 curves before and after calibration for the
weakest corner:
Ideal S11=1.824 GHz
Parasitic inductance shifted it to 1.728 GHz
After calibration the input match aligned
itself at 1.817 GHz

RAMLAB

LSI Logic: High-speed circuit design and

Characterization

Collaborative effort with LSI for device

characterization in high-speed circuits.
Current empirical models require that
every device size used in design has to be
fabricated and the data curve-fitted.
Model scalability with respect to both device size and technology is
required.
0.18um, 0.13um, 90nm & 65nm foundry and data access from LSI

RAMLAB

Kawasaki: Mixed-Signal IC Design

beyond 10 GHz
3-year project begins May 2005
Switching noise dependencies on logic activity and
packaging
High speed clock distribution in a large chip
Simultaneous switching outputs and containment
strategies
Analog and digital isolation in a SoC design
Circuit techniques to monitor core noise

RAMLAB

Thank You

Birla Institute of Technology & Science

Pilani, Rajasthan

RAMLAB