Cadence^® University Program Member

Welcome to the home page of the Cadence Users Group at Johns Hopkins University. This page contains information about the Cadence design tools extensively used in classes and research programs in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Hopkins. Students obtain practical experience in advanced electronics design using state-of-the-art CAD tools, computing and laboratory facilities, and access to the MOSIS foundry for prototyping of integrated circuits.

JHU Cadence Wiki:

http://etienne.ece.jhu.edu/cadencewiki - Wiki for documenting the use and administration of Cadence at JHU

Value Added Items:

• (March 17, 2008) NSCU HTML Tutorial Updated Tutorial using NSCU Toolkit.
• (March. 5, 2007) Cadence Environment Package v1.9b - Config files, directories, simulation files. Read this for more info. See the file manifest for a list of included files. Untar this into your home directory.
• (Mar. 16, 2004) mosiscrc (for linux Redhat 9) - mosiscrc generates the checksum numbers necessary to submit a layout file to MOSIS.
• (Nov. 19, 2003) Matt Clapp's mosisLib - Cadence library for doing lambda-based designs. Read this for more info.
• (Mar. 7, 2007) HTML Tutorial for Composer, Diva, LVS, Verilog, Analog Artist
• (Sep. 27, 2003) Technology files for MOSIS SCMOS processes (May be out of date!)
• (Feb. 23, 1999) MOSIS 1.2u Padframes
• Submit program
• A few Cadence tips
• Spice Guide

Research Projects:

• Computational Sensory-Motor System Lab has the following projects using Cadence design tools:
• The development and implementation of VLSI algorithms for image acquisition, edge detection and motion detection.
• Applications of these algorithms to specific tasks such as visual velocity measurement, autonomous target acquisition and tracking and rudimentary line-following auto-navigation.
• Development of a general purpose (> 128 x 128 pixel) computational sensor for image acquisition, edge detection and 2D motion detection
• Incorporation of the general purpose computational sensors with digital and neural computers to address problems in real-time dynamic scene analysis, dynamic target segmentation and recognition, multiple target tracking and fully autonomous navigation in cluttered environments.
• Adaptive Microsystems Lab has the following ongoing research projects using Cadence design tools:
• Development of analog VLSI systems for multimedia sensory integration, covering applications of speech processing, visual motion estimation, and communications.
• Support vector "machines" for adaptive classification and function approximation.
• Development of low-power mixed analog-digital VLSI implementation of a hybrid ANN/HMM (artificial neural network/hidden markov model) system for continuous speech recognition.
• Design and VLSI prototyping of high-speed oversampling and pipelined analog-to-digital converters in CMOS, BiCMOS and SiGe technology.
• A project to interface analog VLSI electronics with optical diffraction systems for on-line correction of abberation of optical propagation in atmospheric media.

Classes:

• 520.492: Mixed Signal VLSI   (Prof. Gert Cauwenberghs)
Silicon models of information and signal processing functions, implemented in analog and digital CMOS integrated circuits. Structured design, scalability, parallelism, low-power consumption, and robustness to process variations. Topics include digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital data conversion, delta-sigma modulation, vector quantization, continuous-time and switched-capacitor analog filters, and adaptive neural computation.
• 520.491: CAD Design of Digital VLSI Systems I   (Prof. Ralph Etienne-Cummings)
This course is an introduction to VLSI design. Although the emphasis is on digital VLSI circuits, an initial overview of the analog basis of digital VLSI circuits will be given. Using a state-of-the-art CAD environment provided by CADENCE Design Systems, the students will design combinational and sequential circuits at various levels of abstraction.
Both classes feature advanced design projects using the Cadence tools, and student chip designs are fabricated through the MOSIS foundry service with support from the MOSIS Educational Program (MEP).

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