Educational IC Design Projects at ETHZ

 Frank Kagan Gürkaynak, Postdoctoral Researcher at Integrated Systems Laboratory, ETH Zurich

Abstract: At the Integrated Systems Laboratory of ETH Zurich, we have prepared a series of VLSI Design lectures that span three semesters. Parallel to these lectures, the students are given the opportunity to participate in a semester thesis where they can design their own Integrated circuit using state-of-the-art EDA tools. These designs are then taped-out, and manufactured chips are tested during the third part of the lecture series which concentrates on testing. More than 10 such ICs are manufactured annually.

While the main aim of these projects is to teach undergraduate students how to develop an integrated circuit, we have managed to implement several interesting designs that have contributed to research as well. This talk will provide a brief summary of these projects, their organization and the design flow used.
 

About the speaker: Frank K. Gürkaynak was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1971. He received his BSc and MSc degrees from the Istanbul Technical University in 1994 and 1998 respectively. The same year, he joined the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Massachusetts, USA and worked in the field of Analog and Digital VLSI Design. Later he joined the Integrated Systems Laboratory (IIS) of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich in 2000, and completed his Ph.D. in 2005. Currently he is working as a postdoctoral researcher at the IIS.


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