Analog Circuits and Systems Optimization based on Evolutionary Computation Techniques

The microelectronics market, with special emphasis to the production of complex mixed-signal systems-on-chip (SoC), is driven by three main dynamics, time-- market, productivity and managing complexity. Pushed by the progress in na- meter technology, the design teams are facing a curve of complexity that grows exponentially, thereby slowing down the productivity design rate. Analog design automation tools are not developing at the same pace of technology, once custom design, characterized by decisions taken at each step of the analog design flow, - lies most of the time on designer knowledge and expertise. Actually, the use of - sign management platforms, like the Cadences Virtuoso platform, with a set of - tegrated CAD tools and database facilities to deal with the design transformations from the system level to the physical implementation, can significantly speed-up the design process and enhance the productivity of analog/mixed-signal integrated circuit (IC) design teams. These design management platforms are a valuable help in analog IC design but they are still far behind the development stage of design automation tools already available for digital design. Therefore, the development of new CAD tools and design methodologies for analog and mixed-signal ICs is ess- tial to increase the designer’s productivity and reduce design productivitygap. The work presented in this book describes a new design automation approach to the problem of sizing analog ICs.

The microelectronics market trends present an ever-increasing level of complexity with special emphasis on the production of complex mixed-signal systems-on-chip. Strict economic and design pressures have driven the development of new methods to automate the analog design process. However, and despite some significant research efforts, the essential act of design at the transistor level is still performed by the trial and error interaction between the designer and the simulator.

This book presents a new design automation methodology based on a modified genetic algorithm kernel, in order to improve efficiency on the analog IC design cycle. The proposed approach combines a robust optimization with corner analysis, machine learning techniques and distributed processing capability able to deal with multi-objective and constrained optimization problems. The resulting optimization tool and the improvement in design productivity is demonstrated for the design of CMOS operational amplifiers.