Vlsi Integrated Systems On Silicon

VLSI: Integrated Systems on Silicon

This book contains the papers that have been presented at the ninth Very Large Scale Integrated Systems conference VLSI'97 that is organized biannually by IFIP Working Group 10.5. It took place at Hotel Serra Azul, in Gramado Brazil from 26-30 August 1997. Previous conferences have taken place in Edinburgh, Trondheim, Vancouver, Munich, Grenoble and Tokyo. The papers in this book report on all aspects of importance to the design of the current and future integrated systems. The current trend towards the realization of versatile Systems-on-a-Chip require attention of embedded hardware/software systems, dedicated ASIC hardware, sensors and actuators, mixed analog/digital design, video and image processing, low power battery operation and wireless communication. The papers as presented in Jhis book have been organized in two tracks, where one is dealing with VLSI System Design and Applications and the other presents VLSI Design Methods and CAD. The following topics are addressed: VLSI System Design and Applications Track • VLSI for Video and Image Processing. • Microsystem and Mixed-mode design. • Communication And Memory System Design • Cow-voltage & Low-power Analog Circuits. • High Speed Circuit Techniques • Application Specific DSP Architectures. VLSI Design Methods and CAD Track • Specification and Simulation at System Level. • Synthesis and Technology Mapping. • CAD Techniques for Low-Power Design. • Physical Design Issues in Sub-micron Technologies. • Architectural Design and Synthesis. • Testing in Complex Mixed Analog and Digital Systems.

Vlsi

Wafer-Level Integrated Systems

From the perspective of complex systems, conventional Ie's can be regarded as "discrete" devices interconnected according to system design objectives imposed at the circuit board level and higher levels in the system implementation hierarchy. However, silicon monolithic circuits have progressed to such complex functions that a transition from a philosophy of integrated circuits (Ie's) to one of integrated sys tems is necessary. Wafer-scale integration has played an important role over the past few years in highlighting the system level issues which will most significantly impact the implementation of complex monolithic systems and system components. Rather than being a revolutionary approach, wafer-scale integration will evolve naturally from VLSI as defect avoidance, fault tolerance and testing are introduced into VLSI circuits. Successful introduction of defect avoidance, for example, relaxes limits imposed by yield and cost on Ie dimensions, allowing the monolithic circuit's area to be chosen according to the natural partitioning of a system into individual functions rather than imposing area limits due to defect densities. The term "wafer level" is perhaps more appropriate than "wafer-scale". A "wafer-level" monolithic system component may have dimensions ranging from conventional yield-limited Ie dimensions to full wafer dimensions. In this sense, "wafer-scale" merely represents the obvious upper practical limit imposed by wafer sizes on the area of monolithic circuits. The transition to monolithic, wafer-level integrated systems will require a mapping of the full range of system design issues onto the design of monolithic circuit.