VLSI designers are in critical short supply in industry.
Cal Poly can make a significant contribution to alleviate this
shortage. This can most effectively be done by enhancing our current
course offerings in this area, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
A laboratory facility can be established to support the VLSI design
program.
The VLSI laboratory will facilitate both analog and
digital VLSI design and test activities.
Fabrication will be done at MOSIS, or occasionally at an industrial
partner’s facility.
The
laboratory should be equipped with:
- Unix
workstations (Sun)
- CAD
software (Cadence)
- Plotter
- Wafer
prober
- VLSI
test sets (Teradyne, Agilent)
Cadence is already supporting our program with very
generous software donations. Opportunities
to further our relationship with Cadence are being actively pursued. Equipment
donations from Sun, Teradyne and Agilent could also be solicited. Support from many potential employers of the graduates of
this program could also be sought. The
Unix workstations in this lab (perhaps 2 to 6) would supplement, not replace,
those available in the Advanced Workstation Lab, which is an available
on-campus resource. The
laboratory can be housed in space in Building 20, which will become available
in the near future, thanks to new buildings within the College.
