IC Design Fundamentals

Course developed by: Semih Ramazanoglu and Peter Söser, Institute of Electronics, TU Graz
Contact: semih.ramazanoglunoSpam@tugraz.at and peter.soesernoSpam@tugraz.at

Course Description
This course provides an introduction to silicon-based microelectronic systems, from the raw materials used in semiconductor fabrication to the design of integrated circuits. Students will explore the physical and electrical properties that make silicon the dominant material in the semiconductor industry, alongside key fabrication steps, structural elements, and the manufacturing challenges involved in integrated circuit production. As part of this framework, this course is developed within the GreenChips-EDU project, a European Union initiative, and integrates a sustainability-oriented module focused on circular semiconductor manufacturing, responsible material sourcing, and low-impact design methodologies. This module encourages students to consider the environmental footprint of wafer processing, material selection, and chip packaging, while introducing strategies for energy-efficient circuit design and sustainable production workflows across the ASIC design flow. Building on this foundation, the course examines both passive and active components, with particular emphasis on MOSFETs and BJTs. These active devices are studied in detail, including their internal structure, operating principles, and modeling using large- and small-signal techniques. The impact of parasitic effects, second-order phenomena, and process variations on circuit performance and reliability is also addressed. To connect device-level understanding with system-level design, participants will analyze fundamental analog and digital building blocks, gaining insight into how design parameters and operating conditions influence overall circuit behavior. The course concludes with an overview of the ASIC design flow, illustrating how integrated circuits are developed from concept to implementation.

Learning Objectives
After successfully completing the course, students will be able to:

• Describe the key properties of silicon that make it the most widely used semiconductor in the microelectronics industry.
• Identify the main structural elements found in silicon microelectronic devices.
• Name the main fabrication steps in silicon microelectronics and explain the purpose of each.
• Recognize the main fabrication steps from diagrams.
• Identify undesired effects in silicon fabrication, such as bird's beak and lateral underdiffusion, and explain their impact on device geometry and performance.
• Describe how substrate potential influences the selection of fabrication processes and the constraints it imposes on circuit design.
• Differentiate between common silicon fabrication processes, such as CMOS, BiCMOS, SOI, and others, and identify their key structural and functional properties.
• Name key devices commonly found in CMOS and BiCMOS integrated circuits.
• Describe how key components are implemented and used within integrated circuits.
• Explain the structure, function, types, and characteristics of key components in integrated circuits.
• Describe transistor types, structures, operating regions, and key parameters from large- and small-signal models (MOSFETs and BJTs).
• Interpret transistor transfer and output characteristics.
• Analyze the impact of external factors (e.g., temperature) and intrinsic device dimensions (e.g., channel width and length) on transistor performance