ECE 445Integrated Digital Electronics
- Units
- 0.50
- Faculty
- Engineering
When it runs
- F24
- W25
- S25
- F25
- W26
- S26
- F26
- W27
- S27
Ran in 2 of the last 7 terms. Winter 2027: not on the schedule. Spring 2027: schedule not out yet.
Review of the Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) transistor: Static and dynamic behaviour, short channel effects, scaling trends, Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis (SPICE) models. Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) inverter; combinational CMOS circuit design - logic styles for low power, high performance circuits; sequential CMOS circuit design - flip-flops, pipelines, Schmitt trigger; CMOS arithmetic circuits; interconnect parasitic; clocking and timing considerations in digital Very Large Scale Integration (VLSIs).
Prerequisites
- Complete all of the following
- Students must be in level 4A or higher
- Enrolled in H-Computer Engineering, or H-Electrical Engineering
Antirequisites
None listed.
Leads to
No course lists it as a requisite.
Reviewed on UW Flow
73% liked it61% easy86% useful
From 15 ratings and 4 comments on UW Flow. The most helpful comments, quoted as written, without names. Read them all on UW Flow.
If you want to go into digital hardware, this is an extremely useful course. This course covers a lot of the major topics which I have seen in one of my co-op positions at a digital electronics company. You also get to learn Cadence which is used in the industry.
The course itself is about creating digital circuits with transistors. In previous courses in ECE, you learn about things like logic gates, flip-flops/latches, muxes, adders, and memory. In this course, you learn how these things are created with digital circuits.Sep 2022 · liked itOn UW FlowRemove this
It's a useful course, the labs are interesting. Be prepared for a heavy final
Jul 2022 · liked itOn UW FlowRemove this
Labs are important. Don't wait until the last day as the servers might not be stable.
Nov 2017 · liked itOn UW FlowRemove this
Easy course. Concepts are useful for interviewing silicon validation and physical design jobs.
Jul 2015 · didn’t like itOn UW FlowRemove this
Discussed on r/uwaterloo
7 posts and comments in 7 threads mention ECE 445, August 2016 to December 2024. Quoted word for word, newest first; each reply sits under the post and the comment that started its branch. Search r/uwaterloo for newer posts.
Winter 2023
CE 4A TEs 8 points, 30 comments
u/OkCelery1514: “… My options: ECE 414, Wireless Communications ECE 445, Integrated Digital Electronics ECE 452, Software Design & Architecture ECE 454, Distributed Computing ECE 455, Embedded Software ECE 457A, Co-op & Adaptive Algorithms ECE 457C, Reinforcement Learning ECE 458, Computer …”
Spring 2022
Did anyone take ECE 445 or 475 this spring term? 1 point, 0 comments
Spring 2021
ece445 1 point, 1 comment
u/insufferabletoolbag: “ece445”
Winter 2021
ECE 4th Yr Courses Thoughts 2 points, 2 comments
u/TheRailgunOfUW: “ECE445 was pretty interesting. Learning about chip layouts was cool. Workload was fine when I took it in the summer. Though the TA was pretty bad and Derek disappeared for a while so we didn't do all the course content.”
Spring 2020
ECE331 overlaps with other semiconductor courses? 3 points, 5 comments
u/prospectiveNTU: “… If I take: \- ECE340 (circuits 2), \- ECE209 (devices 1), \- ECE432 (integrated RF), \- ECE445 (integrated digital), \- ECE463 (power including power semiconductors), and \- ECE444 (integrated analog), all of which seem to talk about semiconductor physics to some degree, then is …”
Winter 2017
ECE 4th year TEs 7 points, 8 comments
u/ece_te: “So I'm going into 4A CE next term and I want to take either ECE 445 (Digital Circuits) or ECE 413 (DSP). What I have so far is ECE 429 (Computer Architecture) and ECE 455 (Embedded Software) as my TEs and HRM 200 (Human Resources Mgmt) for my CSE. …”
Spring 2016
Why did you choose your program? 9 points, 99 comments
u/Frozen-Placenta: “Was set on computer engineering back in grade 10 since I wanted to learn how to make computer parts. Lost interest, wanted to do mechanical. Changed my mind, wanted to learn more about power systems. …”
u/Frozen-Placenta: “… Then that leads to ECE 444 which is actually designing analog ICs (there's also ECE 445, which is the digital counterpart). Based on what you are interested in and what you want to do, it may or may not benefit you. …”
Check it elsewhere for Fall 2026
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