Digital IC Design Course | IIT Madras | VLSI Fundamentals | Prof. Janakiraman
Course Details
| Exam Registration | 1071 |
|---|---|
| Course Status | Ongoing |
| Course Type | Elective |
| Language | English |
| Duration | 12 weeks |
| Categories | Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering, VLSI design |
| Credit Points | 3 |
| Level | Undergraduate |
| Start Date | 19 Jan 2026 |
| End Date | 10 Apr 2026 |
| Enrollment Ends | 02 Feb 2026 |
| Exam Registration Ends | 20 Feb 2026 |
| Exam Date | 18 Apr 2026 IST |
| NCrF Level | 4.5 — 8.0 |
Master the Foundations of VLSI with Digital IC Design
Embarking on a career in Very-Large-Scale Integration (VLSI) requires a rock-solid understanding of the fundamental building blocks of digital circuits. The Digital IC Design course, offered by the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras), provides exactly that essential foundation. This 12-week undergraduate course, instructed by Prof. Janakiraman Viraraghavan, delves deep into transistor-level circuit design, bypassing high-level abstractions to focus on the core principles that govern modern integrated circuits.
About the Course and Instructor
This course is meticulously crafted for students pursuing a major in VLSI. Unlike many introductory courses, it intentionally avoids Verilog coding, focusing instead on the underlying physics and electrical characteristics of CMOS transistors. This approach ensures you understand why circuits behave the way they do, not just how to describe them.
The course is led by Prof. Janakiraman Viraraghavan, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at IIT Madras and a member of the Integrated Circuits and Systems (iCS) group. With research interests spanning hardware implementation of machine-learning algorithms and statistical analysis in VLSI, Prof. Janakiraman brings both academic rigor and practical insight to the subject.
Who Should Take This Course?
This course is ideal for:
- Undergraduate students in Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.
- Any student with a keen interest in Circuit Design as applied to VLSI.
- Aspiring VLSI design engineers looking to strengthen their core concepts.
Prerequisite: A prior course in digital logic design is mandatory to fully grasp the concepts covered.
Key Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, you will be equipped to:
- Characterize the key delay quantities (propagation, contamination) of a standard cell.
- Evaluate dynamic, short-circuit, and leakage power dissipation in a circuit, including the stacking effect.
- Design a circuit for specific functionality and speed requirements.
- Identify the critical path in a combinational circuit.
- Convert combinational blocks into pipelined circuits for higher throughput.
- Calculate the worst-case maximum operating frequency of a designed circuit.
Detailed 12-Week Course Layout
The course is structured to build your knowledge from the ground up, starting with the most fundamental component.
| Week | Topic |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | The CMOS Inverter: Construction and Voltage Transfer Characteristics |
| Week 2 | Resistance, Capacitance, and Transient Response |
| Week 3 | Dynamic, Short Circuit and Leakage Power – Stacking Effect |
| Week 4 | Combinational Circuit Design and Capacitance |
| Week 5 | Parasitic Delay, Logical Effort, and Electrical Effort |
| Week 6 | Gate Sizing and Buffering |
| Week 7 | Asymmetric Gates, Skewed Gates, Ratio’ed Logic |
| Week 8 | Dynamic Gates, Domino Logic, and Static Timing Analysis |
| Week 9 | Sequential Circuits and Feedback; Various D Flip-Flop Circuits – Static and Dynamic |
| Week 10 | Setup and Hold Time Measurement; Timing Analysis of Latch/Flop Based Systems |
| Week 11 | Adders: Mirror Adder, Carry Skip, Carry Select, Square Root Adder |
| Week 12 | Multipliers: Signed/Unsigned Arithmetic, Carry Save Multiplier Implementation |
Why This Course is Essential for Industry
The skills taught in this Digital IC Design course are directly applicable and highly valued across the semiconductor industry. All major VLSI design companies seek engineers who possess a deep, intuitive understanding of transistor-level behavior, power-performance trade-offs, and timing constraints. This course lays the critical groundwork for roles in:
- Standard Cell Library Design
- Circuit Design & Optimization
- Physical Design & Timing Closure
- Low-Power Design
- CPU/GPU Microarchitecture
Whether you aim to work at a multinational semiconductor corporation or a cutting-edge tech startup, mastering the concepts in this course is a decisive step toward a successful career in VLSI and digital circuit design.
Enroll Now →