Leading Edge Design Tradeoffs

Design focused on understanding impacts on performance, understanding basics of what may happen if something is incorrect or pushing a design limit, and knowing what to consider and ask for when working with designers on issues and improvements. Learning Objectives:  Understand how device physics at the transistor level relates to product behavior, understand the basics of a Process Design Kit (PDK), Understand how SPICE models relate to the design process. Understand how the process variables impact yield, understand the importance of yield parameters like speed, leakage, voltage, temperature, etc., understand the tradeoffs involved when choosing different transistor threshold voltages and sizings.