Integrating circuit analyses for assertion-based verification of programmable AMS circuits

Digitally-programmable analog circuits provide reconfigurability and flexibility for next-generation electronic systems and modern electronic systems need such circuits more than ever. For verification of these circuits, the change in analog characteristics according to digital inputs should be monitored and checked to determine whether measured analog characteristics satisfy desired conditions in a unified analog mixed-signal (AMS) verification environment. Therefore, we integrate common analog circuit analyses into an assertion-based verification flow, and we verify time-varying analog characteristics of digitally-programmable AMS circuits. We use results of DC, AC and Fourier transform based analyses in our AMS assertion language, and monitor violations caused by any change in digital inputs. We show an application of our approach on a programmable low-pass filter circuit where cut-off frequency can be digitally controlled.