ECG 721 Memory Circuit Design
Fall 2015, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

 

Course lecture notes and videos are located here

Homework assignments, due dates, and project information are located here

 

Current grades are located here.

 

In this course we will make extensive use of LTspice.

Examples from the lectures are found in ecg721_f15.zip.  

  

Textbook: CMOS Circuit Design, Layout, and Simulation, Third Edition (Chapters 16-19) as well as handouts

Instructor: R. Jacob Baker (see office hours at this link)

Time: MW 2:30 to 3:45 PM

Course datesMonday, August 24 to Wednesday, December 2

Location: TBE B-309

Holidays: Monday, September 7 (Labor Day Recess) and Wednesday, Nov. 11 Veteran's Day Recess
Final exam time: Wednesday, Dec. 9, 3:10 to 5:10 PM

Course content – A practical introduction to the transistor-level design of memory circuits. Memory technologies including DRAM, Flash, MRAM, Glass-based, and SRAM will be discussed. 

Prerequisite EE 421 or ECG 621

 

Grading
25% Midterm
25% Homework/Quizzes

25% Course Project
25% Final

 

Policies

·         No laptops, Internet appliances (e.g. Kindle, Nook, Ipad, etc.), smart phones, can be used during lectures or exams.

·         If an exam or quiz is open book then only the course textbook can be used (no ebooks, Kindle, Nook, etc., older/international editions, or photocopies).

·         No late work accepted. All assigned work is due at the beginning of class.

·         The final exam will not be returned at the end of the semester, not even temporarily for you to review.

·         Regularly being tardy for lectures, leaving in the middle of lectures, or earlier from lectures is unacceptable without prior consent of the instructor.

·         Cheating or plagiarism will result in an automatic F grade in the course (so do your own homework and projects!)

·         Email questions should be sent to the CMOSedu Google group (not directly to the instructor) at CMOSedu@googlegroups.com.

·         Questions for the instructor (only) should be asked in person (not via email).

 

Course Outcomes 

After completing ECG 721 students will be able to:

1.     Discuss the difference between an open and closed DRAM array architecture

2.    Design, for a DRAM, an n- and p-sense amplifier, row and column decoders, a data read/write path

3.    Design a sigma-delta sensing circuit for a Flash memory

4.    Design and simulate the operation of a charge pump for use in generating a voltage in a memory chip

5.    Design and/or analyze an input buffer for a very-high speed data path

6.    Design delay- and phase-locked loops for synchronization in high-speed memory chips

7.   Discuss the concerns when designing high-speed DRAM memory chips including, the architecture limitations and how they relate to bandwidth, latency, and cycle time, data control, and power delivery  

   

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