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Transistor: Vlsi Inter View Questions

This document contains 41 questions related to VLSI interview questions. The questions cover topics such as MOSFET operation, CMOS inverter design, transistor sizing, noise margins, delay calculations, SRAM design including read/write operations, differential sense amplifiers, testing techniques, and latchup avoidance.

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Harini Manoharan
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63 views

Transistor: Vlsi Inter View Questions

This document contains 41 questions related to VLSI interview questions. The questions cover topics such as MOSFET operation, CMOS inverter design, transistor sizing, noise margins, delay calculations, SRAM design including read/write operations, differential sense amplifiers, testing techniques, and latchup avoidance.

Uploaded by

Harini Manoharan
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Vlsi inter view questions

1. Explain why & how a MOSFET works.

2. Draw Vds-Ids curve for a MOSFET. Now, show how this curve changes (a) with
increasing Vgs (b) with increasing transistor width (c) considering Channel Length
Modulation

3. Explain the various MOSFET Capacitances & their significance

4. Draw a CMOS Inverter. Explain its transfer characteristics

5. Explain sizing of the inverter

6. How do you size NMOS and PMOS transistors to increase the threshold voltage?

7. What is Noise Margin? Explain the procedure to determine Noise Margin

8. Give the expression for CMOS switching power dissipation

9. What is Body Effect?

10. Describe the various effects of scaling

11. Give the expression for calculating Delay in CMOS circuit

12. What happens to delay if you increase load capacitance?

13. What happens to delay if we include a resistance at the output of a CMOS


circuit?

14. What are the limitations in increasing the power supply to reduce delay?

15. How does Resistance of the metal lines vary with increasing thickness and increasing
length?

16. You have three adjacent parallel metal lines. Two out of phase signals pass through the
outer two metal lines. Draw the waveforms in the center metal line due to interference. Now,
draw the signals if the signals in outer metal lines are in phase with each other

17. What happens if we increase the number of contacts or via from one metal layer to the
next?

18. Draw a transistor level two input NAND gate. Explain its sizing (a) considering Vth (b)
for equal rise and fall times

19. Let A & B be two inputs of the NAND gate. Say signal A arrives at the NAND gate later
than signal B. To optimize delay, of the two series NMOS inputs A & B, which one would
you place near the output?
20. Draw the stick diagram of a NOR gate. Optimize it

21. For CMOS logic, give the various techniques you know to minimize power consumption

22. What is Charge Sharing? Explain the Charge Sharing problem while sampling data from
a Bus

23. Why do we gradually increase the size of inverters in buffer design? Why not give the
output of a circuit to one large inverter?

24. In the design of a large inverter, why do we prefer to connect small transistors in parallel
(thus increasing effective width) rather than lay out one transistor with large width?

25. Given a layout, draw its transistor level circuit. (I was given a 3 input AND gate and a 2
input Multiplexer. You can expect any simple 2 or 3 input gates)

26. Give the logic expression for an AOI gate. Draw its transistor level equivalent. Draw its
stick diagram

27. Why don�t we use just one NMOS or PMOS transistor as a transmission gate?

28. For a NMOS transistor acting as a pass transistor, say the gate is connected to VDD, give
the output for a square pulse input going from 0 to VDD

29. Draw a 6-T SRAM Cell and explain the Read and Write operations

30. Draw the Differential Sense Amplifier and explain its working. Any idea how to size this
circuit? (Consider Channel Length Modulation)

31. What happens if we use an Inverter instead of the Differential Sense Amplifier?

32. Draw the SRAM Write Circuitry

33. Approximately, what were the sizes of your transistors in the SRAM cell? How did you
arrive at those sizes?

34. How does the size of PMOS Pull Up transistors (for bit & bit- lines) affect SRAM�s
performance?

35. What�s the critical path in a SRAM?

36. Draw the timing diagram for a SRAM Read. What happens if we delay the enabling of
Clock signal?

37. Give a big picture of the entire SRAM Layout showing your placements of SRAM Cells,
Row Decoders, Column Decoders, Read Circuit, Write Circuit and Buffers

38. In a SRAM layout, which metal layers would you prefer for Word Lines and Bit Lines?
Why?
39. How can you model a SRAM at RTL Level?

40. What�s the difference between Testing & Verification?

41. For an AND-OR implementation of a two input Mux, how do you test for Stuck-At-0 and
Stuck-At-1 faults at the internal nodes? (You can expect a circuit with some redundant logic)

42. What is Latch Up? Explain Latch Up with cross section of a CMOS Inverter. How do you
avoid Latch Up?

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