applsci-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

Advanced Integrated Circuit Design and Applications

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 August 2026 | Viewed by 1496

Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados, CINVESTAV del IPN, Unidad Guadalajara, Zapopan, Mexico
Interests: controller theory; sliding mode control; discrete-time nonlinear control systems; intelligent control, its applications to electrical machines, and its implementations in reconfigurable digital devices

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Centro de Investigaciőn y de Estudios Avanzados, CINVESTAV del IPN, Unidad Guadalajara, Zapopan, Mexico
Interests: self-timed synchronization; electronic systems applied to biomedicine; embedded microprocessor design; digital electronics; custom DSPs in FPGAs

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, the global demand for integrated circuits (ICs) has reached unprecedented levels. This surge has been driven by transformative applications across multiple domains—artificial intelligence, 6G communications, quantum computing, biomedical devices, automotive systems, and robotics, among others. This has resulted in severe shortages, record-setting profits, and major realignments in global semiconductor manufacturing strategies.

The aim of this Special Issue is to provide a platform for researchers to share their latest advances in the design and implementation of ICs. We place particular emphasis on electronic design automation (EDA) tools, design methodologies, and innovative architectures down to layout level. Contributions may address RTL-to-GDSII flows, verification and manufacturing strategies, and the use of both fabricable open-source PDKs (e.g., SkyWater 130, GlobalFoundries 180, IHP 130) and commercial PDKs. Submissions exploring commercial-grade design tools alongside open-source platforms (such as Efabless/ChipFoundry) are also encouraged, highlighting synergies, limitations, and opportunities for adoption in academia and industry. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  1. EDA tool design.
  2. EDA tool applications for the design and verification of ICs.
  3. Novel IC architectures and layout methodologies.
  4. Open-source hardware design platforms and ecosystems.
  5. System on Chip (SoC).
  6. IC measurement and test.
  7. The design of customized ICs for digital signal processing algorithms, automatic control systems, communications, among others.
  8. The integration of AI and machine learning in IC design automation.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Jorge Domínguez
Dr. Susana Ortega Cisneros
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • integrated circuit design
  • ASIC design methodologies
  • community-driven design platforms
  • system on chip
  • chip manufacturing
  • IC test
  • electronic design automation (EDA)
  • Efabless/ChipFoundry
  • custom ICs
  • RTL-to-GDSII flow
  • design verification
  • semiconductor ecosystems
  • open-source hardware
  • layout optimization
  • machine learning for EDA
  • open-source PDKs (SkyWater 130, GF180, IHP130)
  • AI in IC design

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

28 pages, 1828 KB  
Article
Edge Detection on a 2D-Mesh NoC with Systolic Arrays: From FPGA Validation to GDSII Proof-of-Concept
by Emma Mascorro-Guardado, Susana Ortega-Cisneros, Francisco Javier Ibarra-Villegas, Jorge Rivera, Héctor Emmanuel Muñoz-Zapata and Emilio Isaac Baungarten-Leon
Appl. Sci. 2026, 16(2), 702; https://doi.org/10.3390/app16020702 - 9 Jan 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1109
Abstract
Edge detection is a key building block in real-time image-processing applications such as drone-based infrastructure inspection, autonomous navigation, and remote sensing. However, its computational cost remains a challenge for resource-constrained embedded systems. This work presents a hardware-accelerated edge detection architecture based on a [...] Read more.
Edge detection is a key building block in real-time image-processing applications such as drone-based infrastructure inspection, autonomous navigation, and remote sensing. However, its computational cost remains a challenge for resource-constrained embedded systems. This work presents a hardware-accelerated edge detection architecture based on a homogeneous 2D-mesh Network-on-Chip (NoC) integrating systolic arrays to efficiently perform the convolution operations required by the Sobel filter. The proposed architecture was first developed and validated as a 3 × 3 mesh prototype on FPGA (Xilinx Zynq-7000, Zynq-7010, XC7Z010-CLG400A, Zybo board, utilizing 26,112 LUTs, 24,851 flip-flops, and 162 DSP blocks), achieving a throughput of 8.8 Gb/s with a power consumption of 0.79 W at 100 MHz. Building upon this validated prototype, a reduced 2 × 2 node cluster with 14-bit word width was subsequently synthesized at the physical level as a proof-of-concept using the OpenLane RTL-to-GDSII open-source flow targeting the SkyWater 130 nm PDK (sky130A). Post-layout analysis confirms the manufacturability of the design, with a total power consumption of 378 mW and compliance with timing constraints, demonstrating the feasibility of mapping the proposed architecture to silicon and its suitability for drone-based infrastructure monitoring applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Integrated Circuit Design and Applications)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop