Design Automation Techniques for SOI and High-Performance Bulk CMOS Designs

In order to maintain the spectacular rates of growth in the semiconductor industry over the past three decades, it will be necessary in the future to move away from the most traditional ways of building VLSI circuits. This research will explore problems in this domain. The main thrust of the research is related to providing design automation support for circuits using silicon on insulator (SOI) technology, although some aspects of the work will have applicability to the widely used bulk CMOS technology. This research will develop SOI-specific synthesis techniques, as well as optimization techniques that enable the designer to exploit technologies such as dual threshold voltages. Issues related to related to physical design will also be considered.