Synthesis of HighPerformance Analog Circuits in ASTRX/OBLX [chapter]

2009 Computer-Aided Design of Analog Integrated Circuits and Systems  
We present a new synthesis strategy that can automate fully the path from an analog circuit topology and performance specifications to a sized circuit schematic. This strategy relies on asymptotic waveform evaluation to predict circuit performance and simulated annealing to solve a novel unconstrained optimization formulation of the circuit synthesis problem. We have implemented this strategy in a pair of tools called ASTRX and OBLX. To show the generality of our new approach, we have used this
more » ... system to resynthesize essentially all the analog synthesis benchmarks published in the past decade; ASTWOBLX has resynthesized circuits in an afternoon that, for some prior approaches, had required months. To show the viability of the approach on difficult circuits, we have resynthesized a recently published (and patented), high-performance operational amplifier; ASTWOBLX achieved performance comparable to the expert manual design. And finally, to test the limits of the approach on industrial-sized problems, we have synthesized the component cells of a pipelined A/D converter; ASTWOBLX successfully generated cells 2-3 x more complex than those published previously.
doi:10.1109/9780470544310.ch14 fatcat:uchovdny5bgbfcmtbnmglshqia