Work in Progress - Multidisciplinary Experience in System-on-Chip Development

Each year the Departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Engineering Department offer courses leading to a capstone project in the design of a system-on-chip integrated circuit and its fabrication. We call the sequence of experiences "bits-to-chips." Students take coordinated courses in computer architecture, VLSI design, and IC fabrication, and complete the sequence with "frontiers in microelectronic systems." The frontiers course builds on the previous experiences in VLSI design and IC fabrication in a cyclical experience of paper design, chip design, culminating in the frontiers course. In this year\´s cycle, students started with the conceptual design of a mobile sensor agent. In the fall they will develop the detailed design of the chip, followed by its fabrication at Notre Dame during the subsequent frontiers course