Virtuoso Education Kit Available Now

The Cadence Education Kit initiative runs at full steam! After the release of the VLSI Fundamental: A Practical Approach Education Kit and the Tensilica Education Kit, there is a new kit knocking on the door of all microelectronics educators: the Fundamentals of Analog Simulation and Layout Kit. Everyone familiar with Cadence products understands that this kit is diving into the Virtuoso universe, so it can also be known as the Virtuoso Education Kit.

Virtuoso is an immensely important product for Cadence, in fact, many microelectronic students worldwide see the Cadence logo for the first time when they type in virtuoso on the command line. This kit has been developed to help undergrad students, and their educators, by explaining the very basics of creating an analog design.

The kit contains 11 modules with lecture slides and a golden reference design ready for use in a typical semester. All the material in the kit is editable, so the educators can choose the modules that work for them and adapt them to fit their needs.

The kit starts with a detailed explanation of how to enter a schematic, create a symbol view and a testbench. Next, you kick off basic simulations, followed by the creation of a simple layout that is then verified. Once the Layout-vs-Schematic (LVS) comparison is verified as correct, parasitic extraction gets started and the resulting netlists with parasitics is simulated and compared to the original schematic. After running through all these steps, then you should have a basic understanding of analog design!

The Virtuoso Education Kit has been developed by Professor Jad Atallah from Notre Dame University in Lebanon and his student Raffi Der Yeghiayan. Cadence wants to thank Dr. Jad and Raffi for their contribution to the education of microelectronics students worldwide in the area of analog design.

All software tools required for the practical part are available through the Cadence University Program. Cadence University Program members can also access the Cadence Learning and Support Portal, where the Cadence Generic PDK45 used in this course is available. Interested in becoming a Cadence University Program member? Email universityprogram@cadence.com for more information.

If you are interested in the other materials created by the Academic Network in collaboration with our academic partners, you can find them on our Academic Resources page.