Considerations on teaching digital ASIC design

In the area of ASIC design a stringent design and verification methodology is required to avoid bugs and safe time. This is also important when teaching such topics. In this work an overview on existing literature, tools and manufacturing options for digital ASICs with respect to education at the university level is given. Moreover, approaches, course material, prototype samples and infrastructure that have been developed at the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien to foster education in the area of ASIC design are described. That way, students are supported in designing their own ASICs at low efforts and costs. The proposed approaches could be interesting for other universities or research institutions working in the area of digital ASIC design.