84258 - Design of Electronic Systems T-A

Learning outcomes

Introduction to circuit board design. the course provides basic tools to model and design digital systems from initial models in VHDL to detailed interconnect design. The lab tools provide first hand experience on professional grade CAD systems for FPGA design.

Course contents

• Digital Design Flows
– Economic impact of Microelectronics
– Digital technologies Full Custom/Semi Custom, FPGAs
• Hardware Description Languages
– Introduction to System Verilog
– Combinational Logic, Sequential Logic, Finite State Machines
• Functional Verification
– Testbenches
– Assertions
• Simulation and Synthesis
– How a simulator works, modelling time in system Verilog
– Basics of RTL synthesis, constraints
• Digital Architectures
– From Fully Programmable to ASIC and back
– Chiplets Architectures
• Review of circuits, electronics and traveling wave theory
– Thevenin and Norton equivalents
– Device capacitance and inductance
– Current sourcing and sinking
– Transmission line impedance, source and load impedance, reflections
• Packaging technologies and thermal issues
– Packaged parts, bare die, chip-on-board, multi-chip modules
• Printed Circuit Boards Characterization
– Terminations and vias
– Clock distribution
– Cross-talk
– Filtering and decoupling
– Shielding and grounding
– Connection between boards, impedance matching

Readings/Bibliography

- Material Distributed by the Teacher
- Hubert Kaeslin, "Top Down Digital Design"
- Howard Johnson, Martin Graham, "High-Speed Digital Design - A Handbook of Black Magic"

Teaching methods

Class Lectures
Lab Exercises

Assessment methods

1) System Verilog Exercise
2) Discussion with the teacher
3) Lab Assignments

Teaching tools

CAD Tools for System Verilog Design

Office hours

See the website of Davide Rossi