The first IC designed in B&H has been fabricated

On 18 May 2023, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the University of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, presented the first integrated chip of semiconductor technology, which represents the most sophisticated technological process.

FIG: IC oscillates as per design specification and pre/post-layout simulation

Faculty of Electrical Engineering has become one of the higher education institutions where one of the most important engineering disciplines of today and the future is studied according to the best world programmes, with the direct application of industrial standards in teaching, thus preparing the next generation of engineers to be the flywheel of economic revival through innovation.

It took students and professors at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering five years to develop the first integrated chip. Student Vanja Žerić is one of the innovators of this idea, and he states that the knowledge gained was a prerequisite to start the production.

"We are talking about two chips, one of which is a stabilizer or a voltage regulator that has the ability to stabilize the voltage from 1.8 to 3.3 volts. The second was an oscillator that is essential for a chip like this.'', Vanja said.

Assistant Professor of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Aleksandar Pajkanović, PhD, who teaches several courses in the field of chip development at the Department of Electronics, pointed out that the CMOS technological process is the most sophisticated technology that exists in the world, and that it is commercially available, and that they have mastered it and demonstrated it through the implementation of the chip.

"It is particularly important to point out that this technology is significant as a military and industrial strategic resource as well as in higher education, and the most important thing is that we are now among world universities that study this field. It is usual for the implementation of chips to be done in doctoral studies, but with great efforts we managed to do it with third-year students. This chip is not intended for commercialization, as we developed it to demonstrate the capability and mastery of such advanced technology." Prof. Pajkanović stressed.

The details of that development are in the following references:

[1] A. Pajkanovic, “On the Application of Free CAD Software to Electronic Circuit Curricula”, 3rd IcETRAN2016, Zlatibor, Serbia, 2016

[2] A. Pajkanovic and Z. Ivanovic, “A Report on Recent Development in Application of Free CAD Software to IC Curricula,” 5th IcETRAN2018, Palic, Serbia, 2018.

[3] A. Pajkanovic, “Introducing Chisel to IC Design Curriculum at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Banja Luka”, 8th RISCV Workshop, Barcelona, Spain, 2018

[4] A. Pajkanovic, “CMOS IC Design from Schematic Level to Silicon within IC Curricula Using Free CAD Software”, INDEL2020, Banja Luka, B&H, 2020.

[5] A. Pajkanovic, “Free/Open Source EDA Tools Application in Digital IC Design Curricula”, 8th IcETRAN2021, Stanisici, B&H, 2021.

[6] A. Pajkanovic, “Open Source CMOS General Purpose Operational Amplifier", MIEL 2021

[7] A. Pajkanovic, "Free IC Design in Education", PSSOH 2021

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