Quality and value of an IC product are functions of power, performance, area, cost and reliability. The forthcoming 2013 ITRS roadmap observes that while manufacturers continue to enable potential Moore’s Law scaling of layout densities, the “realizable” scaling in competitive products has for some years been significantly less. In this paper, we consider aspects of the question, “To what exten...

This paper presents a layout generation tool that aims to reduce the gap between electrical sizing and physical realization of high performance analog circuits. The procedural layout approach is shown to be best suited for this kind of methodologies. Once captured, the procedural description can be used several times to calculate both rapidly and accurately all parasitics that appear during phy...

Abstract An integrated receiver storage for a beam-down concentrating solar power (CSP) plant enables simplifying the system layout and reducing costs. Here two-layer (TLIRS) design is proposed consisting of cavity packed-bed storage. The first layer porous ceramic second one rocks. To enable performance optimization system, models radiation, two-phase transient heat transfer local thermal none...

Micromachining techniques are being increasingly used to develop miniaturized sensor and actuator systems. These system designs tend to be captured as layout, requiring extraction of the equivalent microelectromechanical circuit as a necessary step for design verification. This paper presents an extraction methodology to (re-)construct a circuit schematic representation from the layout, enablin...

The common Arabic keyboard layout is derived from the Arabic typewriter keyboard’s layout. This layout is not optimized for typing speed and has several problems. We use a genetic algorithm to optimize the design of the Arabic keyboard layout for typing speed. In the genetic algorithm, we use a fitness function that includes into consideration key distance, finger used, and hand alternation. We...

This article provides a case study for a fire extinguisher manufacturing company in North America that has been building a new facility in Mexico to benefit from North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and low production cost. The company utilized a value stream mapping to finalize its new facility’s manufacturing process design, and divided the process into several groups, some of which wer...

The paper discusses the adaptation and width definition methods of a content-driven template based layout system. The approach supports online magazine editors to design magazine layouts. Based on the layouts the approach automatically adapts the actual content to different device screens. In this paper we introduce the concept of the Vertical Splitter Component and discuss the related layout d...

Modern integrated circuits (IC) operate in environment of various destabilizing factors which have essential influence on the operation of these circuits and often even disturb the normal operation. One of these destabilizing factors is the cosmic radiation, particularly total ionization dose effects (TID). For modern TID tolerant ICs [1-4] design is being done by circuit designers. In this pap...

The similarity of varied vehicle package is a critical design feature that affects method selection, optimized design and driver performance. However there is limited understanding of what constitutes similarity in package design and limited computer-based support to identify this feature in a layout model. This paper contributes a case-based framework for representing and reasoning about layou...

A bay configuration arranged along a central spine and served by an automated monorail material handling system are common designs for the layout and material handling system in new semiconductor wafer fabrication facilities. This paper investigates the facility design problem in semiconductor fabrication facilities and proposes a procedure to determine the optimal spine layout design given a d...