Prerequisites: Completion of ENEE303 and ENEE350 with a C- or better, or students who have taken courses with comparable content may contact the department; or permission of instructor (in case some of these prerequisites are not met). Jointly offered with ENEE640. Credit only granted for ENEE640 or ENEE459C.

This course is geared towards developing a unified understanding of three critical aspects of VLSI: technology, design and tools. Popular methods of fabricating VLSI chips will be investigated, along with typical design practices and design tools. Topics will include photo lithography, layouts, low power and high performance design methods, fabrication randomness, ASICs, FPGAs and popular design methodologies. New directions in the field, such as 3D ICs, flash memory technology, carbonnanotubes, fin-fets and advanced cooling techniques, will be considered.