Instructor

Sheldon Tan (stan@ece.ucr.edu)

Office Hours: Thursday 3:00 to 4:00pm (better by appointment).

Office: WCH 424

Lecture

TR 11:10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

MSE 003 Materials Science and Engineering (MSE)

Teaching Assistants

Kai He (khe004@ucr.edu)

Office Hour: Tuesday 4:00 to 5:00 p.m.

TA Office Room: WCH 109

Prerequisite

EE001A, EE001B and EE133 or similar courses or familiar with basic circuit theories, ability to write software (C, C++) and appreciation for numerical methods.

Course Description

The course introduces numerical algorithms and computer-aided techniques for the simulation of electronic circuits. Theoretical and practical aspects of important analyses: circuit formulation methods, large-signal nonlinear DC, small-signal AC and moment matching, transient, sensitivity and noise analysis. Recent advances in timing, symbolic, and RF circuit analysis.

Course Background and Description

Circuit simulation techniques are fundamental to the design and verification of today’s electronic systems. The field of circuit simulation has seen exciting development ever since the advent of integrated circuits. Modern integrated circuits continually challenge circuit simulation algorithms and implementations with the various verification problems they pose. As VLSI technology has advanced to the nano-scale regime, how to efficiently simulate all the important new physic effects coming shrinking devices is crucial to the design and verification of future VLSI systems.

This course presents the theoretical and practical aspects of the building a circuit simulator, such as SPICE. It introduces numerical algorithms and computer-aided techniques for the simulation of electronic circuits. Students will learn the state of the art and future challenges in simulating and analyzing electronic circuits. The course will provide students the knowledge and foundations for future research into design and design automation of future VLSI systems in general, and advanced simulation and modeling techniques for nanometer VLSI designs in particular. We will balance the classic simulation algorithms with new reduction techniques for interconnect circuits and new parallel simulation techniques . Theoretical and practical aspects of important analyses techniques: circuit formulation methods, large-signal nonlinear DC, small-signal AC and moment matching, transient, inductive modeling and reduction techniques. Recent advances in timing, thermal, and RF circuit analysis.

Who can take the course?

Both EE and CS undergraduate and graduate students are welcome as circuit simulation and modeling are important knowledge for efficiently design and verification of today’s VLSI and nanometer systems and future bio-chips. The course covers mathematics, circuit theory, graph theory, physics, device modeling, electrical engineering and software development.

Course Topics and calendars

1. Formulation of Circuit Equations: Nodal Analysis, Modified Nodal Analysis (MNA), and Sparse Tableau and Reduced Tableau Approach. (1 week)
2. Solution of linear equations: Gaussian Elimination, LU decomposition, and sparse matrix techniques, and Krylov iterative methods. (2 weeks)
3. DC analysis: nonlinear DC analysis and convergence issues (1 week)
4. Small-signal transient analysis for linear differential equations (1 week)
5. Small-signal transient analysis for nonlinear differential equations (1 weeks)
6. Moment matching concepts and Krylov Subspace (1 week)
7. Finite Difference / Finite Volume method (FDM) based numerical analysis technique (1 week)
8. Finite Element method (FEM) based numerical analysis technique (1 week)
9. Thermal and statistical analysis for VLSI circuits (1 week)
10. Radio-Frequency and Millimeter Wave (MW) circuit analysis and modeling (1 weeks, optional)

Text books

L.T. Pillage, C.Visweswaraiah, and R.A.Rohrer, Electronic Circuit and System Simulation Methods, McMraw Hill, 1995.

S. X.-D. Tan and L. He, Advanced Model Order Reduction Techniques for VLSI Designs, Cambridge University Press, 2007, ISBN-13 978-0-521-86581-4, ISBN-10 0-521-86581.

 

References:

J. Vlach and K. Singhal, Computer Methods for Circuit Analysis and Design, Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1994.

L.O. Chua and P.M. Lin, Computer-aided Analysis of Electronic Circuits, Prentice-Hall, 1975.

A.E. Ruehli, ed. Circuit Analysis, Simulation and Design, vol. I and II, North-Holland, 1986.

Z. Qin, S. X.-D. Tan and C.-K. Cheng, Symbolic Analysis and Reduction of VLSI Circuits, Springer Publisher, 2005, ISBN: 0-387-23904-9; e-ISBN: 0-387-23905-7.

Grading

Exams: midterm （two midterms) : 20%

Homework: 4-5 assignments: 20%

Final project presentation: 60%

All of them will be graded on the scale of 0 to 100 with 100 being the maximum score.

Project

The SPICE lite project will be announced at Github

Assignment

Home works assignment will be issued thru iLearn