The IEEE Circuits and Systems Society (CASS) invites you to participate in the Second Edition of the Universalization of IC Design from CASS (UNIC-CASS) Program, a structured end-to-end Integrated Circuit (IC) design-to-test experiential learning. The program aims to improve the know-how and accessibility to IC Design technologies for enthusiasts and design communities worldwide in low-to-middle-income and/or low-opportunity countries. This program is in strategic cooperation with the Solid-State Circuits Society which serves geographically-complementing locations.
There are no restrictions to designing your ideal chip on design complexity or type (digital, analog/RF, or mixed-signal). Based on the quality of their submitted chip design proposals, selected participants will get the opportunity to learn from carefully curated materials on the CASS MiLe platform, receive hands-on design mentoring by experts in the field, submit designs to CASS-sponsored fabrication runs via the Efabless chipIgnite program and test your fabricated chip at selected testing facilities.
UNIC-CASS Materials & Tools
GitHub UNIC-CASS Slack Channel CASS Microlearning
Benefits
- Learn by experience on IC conception, functional specifications, design and verification of IC, silicon fabrication, and chip test/bring-up.
- Hands-on design experience using open-source Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools and Open PDKs.
- Enhance students' professional careers in this exciting and challenging field of turning system ideas into real electronic circuits.
How to Participate
- Form a team of 3 to 5 members, undergraduate and graduate-level students (until 31 December 2024). At least 3 team members must be IEEE and CAS Society members in good standing at the time of proposal submission and renew their membership the following year.
- Note: This program is complementarity with the SSCS PICO program.
- Invite one faculty member to be a supervisor/mentor for your team.
- Register for this program by submitting a proposal containing "design title", “team composition (students and supervisor/mentor)”, "description of the design idea", "block diagram" and "expected outcome". A design proposal template is given here. You may use these open-source silicon project 1, project 2 and many others as a reference. Submit your proposal here before the deadline.
- Attend design review mentoring sessions scheduled once every two weeks through Zoom or Webex with CASS mentors. Our expert-in-the-field volunteers, including IC design professionals, professors, and advanced graduate students, will meet online to answer questions and interact with your design team.
- In this UNIC-CASS 2nd edition, depending on the complexity of the proposed design, selected projects will be mentored as either (i) advanced or (ii) educational
- Travel (one representative from each team) to the CASS testing hub for the chip testing activities.
Important Dates
- 19 June 2024 - First Call for Participation
- 14 July 2024 - Deadline for Proposal submission
- 31 July 2024 - Result announcement
- 1 August - November 2024 -
Learn from specially curated educational materials
Design-to-Tapeout Mentoring sessions - November 2024 - Deadline for Layout submission
- April 2025 - Chip test/bring-up
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Inquiries
Any additional inquiries should be directed to the CASS VP - Education and Communications ((Click to show email)).