Basic Information
- Course Code: EE 735
- Course Name: Microelectronics Simulation Lab
- Course Offered In: 2023-2024
- Semester Season: Autumn
- Instructors: Prof. Saurabh Lodha
- Prerequisites: EE207 - Electronic Devices is a must as this course heavily relies on it. Apart from this, if you have taken EE669 - VLSI Technology (parallelly also works) that would help as well. And familiarity with MATLAB is emphasised by the instructor, but it can still be managed without it (but that would require extra effort).
- Difficulty (1 being easy and 5 being tough): 3
Course Content
The course is, as it’s name suggests, a lab course. It involved analysing electronic devices, it’s characteristics and simulating these using MATLAB and Sentaurus TCAD. Every week, a simulation exercise would be given involving putting together a device structure and then analysing it’s characteristics by varying different parameters like dielectric strength, width of capacitor, etc. A session used to be conducted by the TAs to discuss the problem statement, what they expect you to do, and any tips and tricks you should take into account. Again, as the second half deals with licensed software, it’s important to attend these sessions as getting external help would be really difficult. The course starts with simulations on MATLAB involving basic models of Capacitor, Diodes and moved on to heavier simulations of devices such as Transistors on Sentaurus TCAD. The simulations on TCAD were based on real life considerations and fabrications made in the industry. Finally we also got a taste of macroscopic modelling using Verilog-A and HSpice to simulate various components in a circuit.
Feedback on Lectures
The sessions conducted every week used to be detailed and covered what was needed to be done in the assignment given. It also discussed the theory behind why something is happening and why simulations are done that way, which is important to understand the functioning of these software tools. The sessions are a must to attend to ensure you stay on track with the course
Feedback on Evaluations
The evaluations, considering it was a lab course was pretty majorly dependent on the weekly assignments -
Assignments - ~50% EndSem - ~30% MidSem - ~20%
The Midsem and Endsem were written exams. They were easy to moderate as most of the questions were based on the weekly sessions and assignments. Also ensure to go through the previous year paper if you get hold of it, as that would give you a really good idea of how the papers would be framed. The assignments on the other hand were moderate to difficult, would get tough sometimes and computationally intensive. As it involves licensed software, ensure to start way earlier than the deadline, to avoid software lags and license issues.
Study Material and Resources
The resources given by the instructors and TAs are more than enough to go through this course.
Follow-up Courses
If EE669 is not taken parallelly or before this course, it would be a good course to take.
Final Takeaway
This course is a must for people who wish to pursue research on Micro-electronics as it introduces you to the simulation softwares like no other course does. Even for people interested in Analog-Mixed Signal Design, this course would be a helpful and give you a broader idea of transistors and devices.