We need to make sure we can package the IC after the wafer has been diced into individual dies.

A common way of packaging ICs is to connect them to a leadframe by bonding tiny wires between the leads of the leadframe and the pads on the die.

The big bond pads around the outside of the IC often include ESD protection diodes, Input/Output drivers and so on.

This picture shows raven, an IC from Efabless. You can see around the edge there are the big bond pads and the power and ground lines. This structure is called a padring.

The padring used in the Google shuttle is included in Caravel.

Course feedback

This course was very intuitive and had many resources for when I got stuck. The content is broken down into several sections that are easy to digest for all levels of expertise. The Discord channel and weekly calls are where I can ask questions and stay up to date with what is happening in the community. I am very glad to be a part of it and have submitted digital and mixed-signal designs.

Brandon Ramos (analog course)