Iowa State University has been involved in teaching and research in the VLSI area for about 20 years. At the present time, there is a substantial focus in both teaching and research in the areas of Analog and Mixed-Signal Design and VLSI CAD. There are about 20 graduate students working in the area split between the M.S. and Ph.D. programs.
There is considerable student participation at both the undergraduate level and graduate level in classes supporting the VLSI area. In addition to offering these classes to on-campus students, several are available for remote delivery to off-campus students. We offer a junior- level course on Integrated Electronics, EE/CpE 330, that serves as an introduction to VLSI design. We offer two follow-on senior elective courses as well. One, EE/CpE 435, focuses on analog and mixed-signal integrated circuit design and the other, EE/CpE 465, concentrates on digital VLSI design. Each fall we offer a graduate level linear integrated circuit design course, EE/CpE 501. In alternate years we also offer graduate level courses in integrated filter design (EE 508), data converter design (EE/CpE 505), high speed communication circuits (EE/CpE 507), power management (EE/CpE 504), phase-locked loops (EE/CpE 506), analog and mixed-signal testing and BIST (EE 590), rf circuit design (EE 510), modeling and optimization of interconnects (CpE 563), synthesis and optimization of digital VLSI systems (CpE 564), and Physical Design (CpE 566).
There are excellent physical facilities for both instructional and research activities. Much of the design is done in the VLSI CAD laboratory or at workstations distributed throughout the department. The Carver Laboratory supported, in part, by a grant from the R. J. Carver Trust, provides a good environment for testing analog and mixed-signal circuits. There is also a microwave circuits laboratory that supports both instruction and research activities.
A major emphasis in both the undergraduate and graduate program is placed upon practical issues associated with the design of useful integrated circuits and on verifying concepts through experimental characterization of circuits designed by students in the laboratory. Fabrication of integrated circuits is typically available through the MOSIS program or through special arrangements with program sponsors.
Faculty members associated with the VLSI program are professors Randy Geiger, DeGang Chen, Chris Chu, Ayman Fayed, Nathan Neihart, Santosh Pandey, and Robert Weber.
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Questions or comments may be sent to Dr. Randall Geiger.