Chip Design @ KIT

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Digital & AI Chip-(Co)-Design

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Analog and Mixed-Signal Chip-Design @ KIT

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Ultra Low Power Chip-Design @ KIT

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Radio-Frequency Chip-Design @ KIT

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Photonic Chip-Design @ KIT

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Emerging Technology Chip-Design @ KIT

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Design of Chip Interconnects and Packages @ KIT

Chip Design
  • Interconnect design:
    • High-speed
    • RF & THz
    • Photonic
       
  • Package, System-in-Package (SiP) design:
    • Hybrid integration
    • Antenna in package
    • Photonic packages
    • High-power packaging
       
  • KIT-Groups:
    • Zwick, Koos, Blank, Caselle

Chip-Design Methods @ KIT

chip design methods
  • Design automation:
    • for reliable and secure (AI) hardware
    • AI assisted design:
      • optimization e.g. for power amplifiers
      • AutoML for embedded DNN & LLM …
    • Open Source & service design tools
    • From cloud to device: cross-platform Co-Design
       
  • Design space optimization
     
  • Software/Hardware Co-Design:
    • Simulation, FPGA emulation
    • Full RISC-V SoC flow: from design to tapeout
    • CPU/GPU/accelerator mapping & deployment 
    • Methods
    • Central/de-central partitioning Methods
       
  • Process design kit development
     
  • KIT-Groups: 
    • Tahoori, Becker, Henkel, Aghassi, Beigl, NN-ASD, NN-ACD

Technology Transfer

Technology Transfer
  • Startups:
    • milli IC - www.milli-ic.com 
    • Wellenzahl Radar- und Sensortechnik - www.wellenzahl.com
    • emmtrix Technologies - www.emmtrix.com
    • Deeplight - www.deeplight.ai
    • Teragear - www.teragear.ai
    • Vanguard Automation - www.vanguard-automation.com 
    • Luxtelligence - www.luxtelligence.ai
    • SilOriX - www.silorix.com
    • Keystone photonics - www.keystone-photonics.com 
    • Liftwise - www.liftwise.de 

Chip-Design Expertise @ KIT

  • Prof. Cagri Ulusoy: radio frequency chip-design
  • Prof. Ivan Peric: analog and mixed-signal chip-design
  • Prof. Jasmin Aghassi-Hagmann: ultra low power chip design, neuromorphic, flexible chips
  • Prof. Christian Koos: design of photonic chips and packages
  • Prof. Thomas Zwick: design of RF packages, SiP, on-chip RF passives
  • Prof. Jürgen Becker: digital SoC/SiP design & deployment 
  • Prof. Jörg Henkel: embedded architectures and machine learning
  • Prof. Mehdi Tahoori: EDA, STCO, flexible electronics
  • Dr. Michele Caselle: advanced silicon sensors and electronic design
  • Prof. Sebastian Kempf: design of superconducting quantum sensors
  • Prof. Michael Beigl: embedded chip-design for waerables
  • Prof. Sebastian Randel: photonic chip-design & DSP ASIC-Design
  • Dr. Thomas Blank: package design for high-power ICs
  • Dr. Marc Schneider: photonic chip-design
  • Prof. Tobias Huber-Loyola: design of quantum emitter environments
  • Prof. NN-BE: new professorship for „biomedical electronics“ -> design of low power Ics
  • Prof. NN-ASD: AI-based system development -> chip-design methods
  • Prof. NN-ACD: AI methods in chip design –> chip-design methods

Chip-Design Education @ KIT

Chip Design Education
  • KIT Chipdesign House (KCH): 
  • Advancing Education & Eco Systems … 
     
  • Enhanced System-on-Chip course
  • Full RISC-V SoC flow: from design to tapeout
  • Custom Wishbone peripheral development
  • Simulation, FPGA emulation, RTL2GDS
  • Based on Open Source Tools and IHP Open PDK
  • Reference design taped out & teaching materials
     
  • Workshop organization (WIP)
  • Tiny Tapeout with founder Matt Venn
  • Graphical digital design for all students
  • Chipdesign with Synopsys
  • Covers analog, digital, packaging, and more
  • Intensive 2-week course for KIT PhD students
     
  • In-house workshop development
  • ITIV Open Source Chip Design Workshop
  • Verilog Workshop using Tiny Tapeout
     
  • KIT-Groups: all
     

Digital & AI Chip-(Co)-Design

Digital AI
  • Design for domain-specific architectures
    • Cross-layer approximations AI Chip Co-design
    • ML & DNN & HW Circuits
    • ML-driven power & thermal management
  • DSP ASCI-design for high-speed transceivers
  • Hardware-software co-design of AI hardware and algorithms 
  • Chiplet-based system integration & AI deployment
    • Partitioning Workload, Memory & Computing
    • Heterogenous Chiplet Integration with CDKs
  • Wearable Design: Interdisciplinary human to technology design to product (CE) & application 
  • KIT-Groups: Becker, Randel, Henkel, Tahoori, Beigl

Analog and Mixed-Signal Chip-Design @ KIT

Analog mixed
  • Extensive experience in mixed-signal ASIC design, with 70 chips developed across 10 technology nodes (16–350 nm) in 35 MPW and 13 engineering runs since 2014
  • Large variety of analog and mixed-signal circuits:
    • Multichannel and high-speed ADCs/DACs
    • Multichannel high-voltage drivers and low-noise amplifiers
    • High-voltage CMOS active pixel sensors 
    • Security analog circuits, physical unclonable functions
    • Sensor interface circuits, e.g. decoders for large area sensing
    • Radiation-hardened circuits
  • KIT-Groups: Peric, Aghassi-Hagmann, Ulusoy, Caselle

Ultra Low Power Chip-Design @ KIT

Ultra low
  • Design of hybrid systems in foil with thinned ASICs
  • Design of printed electronics 
  • Design and optimization of ultra resource constrained flexible and printed mixed-signal (AI) chips (ERC-AdG)
  • Design of Analog neuromorphic circuits including memristors
  •  Advanced node CMOS VLSI (e.g. 16nm, 3N, 18Angström (tbd)) analog and mixed signal design, e.g. oscillator circuits, low noise, ..
  • Design of low-power embedded systems (wearables)
  • Design of biomedical ICs
  • KIT-Groups: Aghassi-Hagmann, Peric, Beigl, Henkel, Tahoori, NN-BE

Radio-Frequency Chip-Design @ KIT

Radio Frequency
  • Access to advanced IC technologies
    • GlobalFoundries 22 nm FD-SOI CMOS
    • IHP, Infineon, ST SiGe BiCMOS 
    • III-V Labs InP HBTs…
    • Since 2019: 25 Tape-outs, >85 mm2
  • Chip Design for various applications
    • Mm-Wave Radar, Communications
    • Optical communications
    • Space & scientific/niche applications
    • Broad frequency range DC - >300GHz 
  • KIT-Groups: Ulusoy, Zwick

Photonic Chip-Design @ KIT

Photonic chip design
  • Photonic chip design based on in-house fabrication (KCOP) or foundry-based fabless processing
  • Cooperation with leading photonic foundries such as IMEC (BE) or AMF (SG)
  • Applications: Optical communications, microwave photonics / photonic-electronic signal processing, optical sensing and metrology 
  • Inter-university master course with RWTH Aachen and TU Berlin: “Photonic Integrated Circuits – Design and Applications (PICDA)”
  • KIT-Groups: Koos, Randel, Schneider

Emerging Technology Chip-Design @ KIT

Emerging technology
  • In-memory Spintronic Computing for Bayesian Neural Networks
  • Design of superconducting quantum sensors
    • dc-SQUIDs, rf-SQUIDs, SQUID-based multiplexers
    • Cryogenic microcalorimeters and microbolometers
    • Superconducting resonators and filters
  • Resonator circuit design for quantum computing
  • Design of single emitter nanocavities and on-chip photon routing
  • Cross-disciplinary system architecture integration of emerging technologies (RFET, MRAM, RRAM, …) to shape future architectures
  • KIT-Groups: Kempf, Aghassi-Hagmann, Tahoori, Huber-Loyola, Becker