Built for IC Engineers
- New hires and early-career IC engineers (0–3 years) at Canadian semiconductor companies
- Final-year MSc/PhD students seeking IC design job readiness
- Industry professionals seeking structured front-end design upskilling
Course Overview
This front-end digital design course provides hands-on exposure to RTL development, simulation, synthesis, and verification workflows using professional semiconductor EDA tools. Participants will learn how digital designs move from specification to synthesizable RTL and validated netlists while applying industry-standard coding, debugging, and verification methodologies.
Developed with input from Canadian semiconductor employers and the Industry Training Advisory Group (ITAG).
Prerequisites
- Basic digital logic & computer architecture
- Introductory HDL familiarity (beneficial)
- No prior EDA experience required
What You Will Learn
- Write, simulate, and synthesize RTL designs using professional EDA tools (Cadence / Synopsys)
- Run an RTL-to-netlist flow and interpret synthesis reports
- Develop and debug simulation testbenches
- Apply front-end digital design and verification best practices
- Contribute to RTL design and verification tasks within semiconductor teams
Topics Covered
- RTL design methodology and coding standards
- Combinational and sequential RTL design
- Simulation setup and debugging workflows
- Synthesis flow and netlist generation
- Constraint basics and timing analysis
- Verification concepts and SystemVerilog testbench fundamentals
- RTL review, linting, and debugging techniques
- Introduction to collaborative front-end semiconductor workflows
By the End of the Online Course, You’ll Be Able To:
- Write synthesizable RTL using industry-standard coding practices and EDA tools
- Run an RTL-to-netlist synthesis flow and interpret timing and area reports
- Develop and debug simulation testbenches using SystemVerilog
- Apply front-end digital design and verification best practices in a professional tool environment
- Contribute to RTL design and verification tasks within IC development teams
Equipment Requirements
- Windows, macOS, or Linux laptop
- Stable high-speed internet connection
- Modern web browser: Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari
- VPN / SSH / Remote Desktop / VNC access, if required
- 8 GB RAM minimum, 16 GB recommended
- Power adapter for full-day training
