Project management and verification-the key problems of student chip design courses

With the intention to attract more students to specialize in the fields of microelectronics and to create a learning environment in which students are trained in so-called soft skills the Institute of Microelectronic Circuits and Systems started to offer project-oriented courses. In this one semester course students are introduced to all steps of a standard cell based design flow and thus learn how to design, implement, and verify an ASIC using state-of-the-art software tools. The complex design task is partitioned into equally important sub-modules, which are closely connected. Thus only by successful cooperation and coordination the students can accomplish the task until the end of the semester. The lessons learned from the first run the course are that next to the common problems, which come along with the usage of hardware description languages and the handling of new complex design tools, project management and thorough and successful design verification are the key problems of those student chip design courses. Measures taken to overcome these problems are presented in this paper.