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Glossary

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The following glossary is a reference document for information and explanations of acronyms and common terms related to VLSI IC design and Cadence softwares. Be aware that this page is continuously being updated with new acronyms and improved definitions and concepts.

AC - Alternating Current

ac - (Spectre) AC analysis

ADC - Analog-to-Digital Converter

ADE - (Virtuoso) Analog Design Environment

aka - short for also known as

ALICE - (CERN) A Large Ion Collider Experiment

AMS - (vendor) American MicroSemiconductors (ex. Austria Micro Systems)

AOB - Any Other Business

APD - Avalanche Photo Diode

APS - (Spectre) Accelerated Parallel Simulator

ASCII - American Standard Code for Information Interchange

ASIC - Application Specific Integrated Circuit

ASK - Amplitude-shift keying

ASP - Analog Signal Processing

ASSET - Advanced Support System for Emulation and Test

Assura - Cadence's layout verification tool

ATE - Automatic Test Equipment

ATG - Automatic Test Generation

ATPG - Automatic Test-Pattern Generation

BNF - Backus-Naur Form

BEOL - Back-End Of Line

BiCMOS - Bipolar Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor

BIFET - Bipolar Field-Effect Transistor

BIST - Built-In Self-Test

BIT - Built-In Test

BIT - Binary digit

BL - Base-Line

BLH - Base-Line Holder

BJT - Bipolar Junction Transistor

bpi - bits per inch (HD drive)

Bpi - byte per inch (HD drive)

BX - Bunch Crossing

BW - Band-Width

CAD - Computer Aided Design

CAE - Computer-Aided Engineering

Calibre - Mentor Graphics's layout verification tool

CCO - Current-Controlled Oscillator

CCR - Cadence Change Request

CDK - Cadence Design Kit

CCCS - Current Controlled Current Source

CCVS - Current Controlled Voltage Source

CDE - Common Desktop Environment

CDF - (Cadence) Component Description Format

CFD - Constant Fraction Discriminator

CIW - (Cadence) Command Interpreter Window

CLK - Clock

CLM - Channel Length Modulation (MOS short channel effect)

CM - Common Mode

CML - Current-Mode Logic

CMFB - Common Mode Feedback

CMOS - Complementary MOS

CMRR - Common Mode Rejection Ratio

CMS - (CERN) Compact Muon Solenoid experiment

corner - a combination of variables and parameters that defines a best/worst case scenario

CPC - Charge-Pump Circuit

crumb - two bits

CSV - (file ext.) Comma-Separated Values

CT - Continuous Time

CTS - Clock Tree Synthesis

CVS - Concurrent Versioning System

C2MOS - Clocked CMOS

ΔΣ - Delta-Sigma modulator

DAC - Digital-to-Analog Converter

DAQ - Data Acquisition

DB - DataBase

dB - (unit) decibel

DC - Direct Current

DC-OP - DC Operating Point

dc - (Spectre) DC analysis

dcmatch (Spectre) ???? analysis

DEF - (Cadence) Design-Exchange Format

DDS - Direct Digital Synthesis

D-FF - Delay Flip-Flop (D-type Flip-Flop)

DFII - (Cadence) Design Framework II

DFM - Design For Manufacturing

DFT - Design for Test

DIBL - Drain Induces Barrier Lowering (MOS short channel effect)

Diva - Cadence's layout verification tool

DLL - Delay-Locked Loop

DNL - Differential Non-Linearity

DNW - Deep N-Well

DRAM - Dynamic RAM (Random Access Memory)

DRC - Design Rule Check

DRM - Design Rules Manual

DSM - Deep Sub-Micron

DSP - Digital Signal Processing

DT - Discrete Time

DTL - Diode-Transistor Logic

DUT - Device Under Test

EAROM - Eletrically Alterable Read Only Memory

ECL - Emitter-coupled logic

EDA - Electronic Design Automation

EDI - (Cadence) Encounter Digital Implementation

EDP - Energy-Delay Product

ELT - Enclosed Layout Transistor

ENC - Equivalent Noise Charge

Encounter - (Cadence) Place & Route tool

ENOB - Effective Number Of Bits

envlp - (Spectre) envelope analysis

EOC - End-Of-Column

EOF - End-Of-File

EP - (fabrication service provider) Euro Practice

EPROM - Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory

EEPROM (or E²PROM) - Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory

ERC - Electrical Rule Check

ESD - Electrostatic Discharge

ETP - Energy-Time Product

ETBC - Embedded Test-Bus Controller

FDK - Foundry Design Kit

FEE - Front-End Electronics

FEOL - Front-End Of Line

FET - Field Effect Transistor

FF - Flip-Flop

FF - (corner) Fast NMOS, Fast PMOS

FFT - (DFT algorithm) Fast Fourier Transform

FIFO - First In First Out

FIR - (digital filters) Finite Impulse Response

FM - Frequency Modulation

FOM - Figure Of Merit

FOX - (process) Field-Oxide

FPAA - Filed Programmable Analog Array

FPGA - Field Programmable Gate Array

FS - (corner) Fast NMOS, Slow PMOS

FSK - Frequency-shift keying

FSM - Finite-State-Machine

FTE - Full-Time Equivalent

GBP - same as GBW

GBT - GigaBit Transceiver

GBW - Gain-Banwidth product

GBWP - same as GBW

GDSII - Graphic Database System II

GIDL - Gate-Induced Drain Leakage current

GUI - Graphical User Interface

HCM - (ClioSoft) Hardware Configuration Management

HDL - Hardware Description Language

HEP - High Energy Physics

Hercule - Synopsys's layout verification tool

HF - (Cadence) Hot Fix

HSDL - Hierarchical Scan Description Language

HSPICE - Mentor Graphics's circuit simulator

HV - High Voltage

HVT - High threshold voltage MOS transistor

HW - Hardware

IBM - (vendor) International Business Machines Corporation

IC - Integrated Circuit

IC - Inversion Coefficient

icfb - (Cadence) IC Front-to-Back

ICMR - Input Common-Mode Range

IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

IGFET - Insulated-Gate Field Effect Transistor

IIR - (digital filter) Infinite Impulse Response

INL - Integrated Non-Linearity

IO - Input/Output

IOS - Input Offset Storage (offset cancellation technique)

IP - Intellectual Property

IP address - Internet Protocol address

ISI - Inter-symbol interference

ISP - In-System Programming

JEDEC - Joint Electronic Device Engineering Council

JIT - Just-In-Time (manufacturing)

JK-FF - Jack Kilby Flip-Flop

JTAG - Joint Test Action Group

KCL - Kirchoff's Current Law

KVL - Kirchoff's Voltage Law

LDO - Low Drop-Out voltage regulator

LEB - LHCC Electronics Board

LEC - Logic Equivalence Checking (Checker)

LED - Light-Emitting Diode

LEF - (Cadence) Library Exchange Format

LET - Linear Energy Transfer (dE/dx )

LHCC - LHC Commette

LHS - Latin Hypercube Sampling (MC algorithm)

LIFO - Last Input First Output

LM - (Cadence) Library Manager

LNA - Low-Noise Amplifier

LOCOS - (process) Local Oxidation of Silicon

LP - Low-Power

LVDS - Low-Voltage Differential Signaling

LV - Low Voltage

LVS - Layout Versus Schematic check

LVT - Low threshold voltage MOS transistor

LSB - Least Significant Bit

LSW - (Cadence) Layer Selection Window

MC - Monte Carlo

MS - Metal Stack

MS - Mixed-Signal

MI - Moderate Inversion

MIM - Metal-Insulator-Metal capacitor

MIP - Minimum Ionizing Particle

MOM - Metal-Oxide-Metal capacitor

MOS - Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor

MOSIS - (fabrication service provider) Metal Oxide Silicon Implementation Service

MOSFET - Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor

MMSIM - (Cadence) Multi-Mode Simulation

MPC - Multi-Project Chip

MPW - Multi-Project Wafer

MSB - Most Significant Bit

MUX - Multiplexer

MVA - Multivariate Analysis

N/A - Not applicable (or not available)

nch - NMOS transistor

NDA - Non-Disclosure Agreement

nfet - NMOS transistor

NIM - Nuclear and Instrument Methods

noise - (Spectre) noise analysis

NM - Noise Margin

NTF - Noise Transfer Function

OCEAN - (Cadence) Open Command Environment for Analysis

OOS - Output Offset Storage (offset cancellation technique)

OP-AMP - Operational Amplifier

OS - Operating System

OSR - Over Sampling Ratio

OSS - (Cadence) Open Simulation System

OTA - Operational Transconductance Amplifier

OTPROM - One-Time Programmable Read-Only Memory

pac - (Spectre) periodic AC analysis

PCB - Printed Circuit Board

PCD - Pre-Characterized Device

pch - PMOS transistor

PDF - Probability Density Function

PDK - Process Design Kit

PD - Phase Detector

PDP - Power-Delay Product

PET - Positron Emission Tomography

pfet - PMOS transistor

PFD - Phase-Frequency Detector

PLC - Programmable Logic Controller

PLD - Programmable Logic Device

PLL Phase-Locked Loop

PM - Phase Margin

PMT - Photo-Multiplier Tube

pnoise - (Spectre) periodic noise analysis

PROM - Programmable Read Only Memory

PRPG - Pseudorandom Pattern Generation

PSA - Parallel Signature Analysis

PSD - Power Spectrum Density

PSF - (Cadence) Parameter Storage Format

PSI - Paul Sherrer Institute

psp - (Spectre) periodic S-parameters (Scattering) analysis

PSRR - Power Supply Rejection Ratio

pss - (Spectre) periodic steady-state analysis

pstb - (Spectre) periodic ????? analysis

PTAT - Proportional To Absolute Temperature

PU - Pile-Up

PUC - Pixel Unit Cell

PVT - Process, Voltage (supply) and Temperature variations

PWB - Printed Wiring Board

pxf - (Spectre) periodic transfer function analysis

pz - (Spectre) pole-zero analysis

qpac - (Spectre) quasi-periodic AC analysis

qpnoise - (Spectre) quasi-periodic noise analysis

qpss - (Spectre) quasi-periodic steady-state analysis

qpsp - (Spectre) quasi-periodic S-parameters (Scattering) analysis

qpxf - (Spectre) quasi-periodic transfer function analysis

RAID - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks

RAM - Random Access Memory

RB - Replica Bias

RC - (Cadence) RTL Compiler, digital syntesis tool

RCX - Resistor-Capacitor extractor

R&D - Research and Development

RDF - Random Dopant Fluctuations

RHEL - Red Hat Enterprise Linux

ROC - Read-Out Chip

ROI - Region Of Interest

ROM - Read Only Memory

RF - Radio Frequency

RMS - Root Mean Square

RSF - (Cadence Assura) Run-Specific File

RTL - Register Transfer Level

RTL - Resistor-transistor logic

RVE - (Calibre) Results Viewing Environment

SADD - Start Address

SAW - Surface acoustic wave

SDD - Silicon Drift Detector

SBD - Schottky Barrier Diode

SCEs - Short Channel Effects

SCl - Source-Coupled Logic

SE - (Cadence) Schematic Editor

SEE - Single Event Effect

SEB - Single Event Burnout

SEGR - Single Event Gate Rupture

SEL - Single Event Latchup

sens - (Spectre) sensitivity analysis

SEU - Single Event Upset

SF - (corner) Slow NMOS, Fast PMOS

SFDR - Spurious Free Dynamic Range

SI - Strong Inversion

SiPM - Silicon Photo-Multiplier

SKILL - Cadence's scripting language

SL - Scientific Linux

SLC - Scientific Linux Cern

SNR - Signal-to-Noise Ratio

SNDR - Signal-to-Noise and -Distortion Ratio

SoC - System on Chip

SOI - (process) Silicon On Insulator

sp - (Spectre) S-parameters (Scattering) analysis

SPB - (Cadence) Silicon Package Board, PCB design tool

Spectre - Cadence's circuit simulator

SPICE - Simulation Program with Integrated Circuits Emphasis

SR - (amplifier) Slew Rate

SRAM - Static Random Access Memory

SS - (corner) Slow NMOS, Slow PMOS

stb - (Spectre) ???? analysis

STF - Signal Transfer Function

STI - (process) Shallow Trench Isolation

SVRF - (Calibre) Standard Verification Rule Format

SW - Software

TC - Temperature Coefficient

TBD - To Be Determined

TCL - (scripting language) Tool Command Language

TDC - Time-to-Digital Converter

TOA - Time Of Arrival

TOF - Time Of Flight

TOT - Time-Over-Threshold

TG - Transmission Gate

TID - Total Ionizing Dose (Total Irradiated Dose)

tran - transient analysis

TSMC - (vendor) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company

TT - (corner) Typical NMOS, Typical PMOS

TTL - Transistor-transistor logic

TVF - (Calibre) TCL Verification Format

tw - triple-well transistor

UBT - Universal Bus Transceiver

UDSM - Ultra-Deep-Sub-Micron technology

ULP - Ultra Low-Power

UMC - (vendor) United Microelectronics Corporation

USB - Universal Serial Bus

UTM - (metal stack) Ultra-Thick Metal

UUT - Unit Under Test

UVM - Universal Verification Methodology

VCCS - Voltage-Controlled Current Source

VCO - Voltage-Controlled Oscillator

VCVS - Voltage-Controlled Voltage Source

VHDL - VHSIC Hardware Description Language

VHSIC - Very High Speed Integrated Circuits

ViVA - (Cadence) Virtuoso Visualization and Analysis

VLSI - Very Large Scale Integration

VTC - Voltage Transfer Characteristic

WI - Weak Inversion

WPE - Well Proximity Effects

wrt - short for with reference to

xf - (Spectre) transfer function analysis

XOR - Exclusive OR logic gate

XCVR - Transceiver

ZDC - Zero Degree Calorimeter



Last update: Serena Panati - Sep 19th, 2013