ASF: a practical simulation-based methodology for the synthesis of custom analog circuits

This paper describes ASF, a novel cell-level analog synthesis framework that can size and bias a given circuit topology subject to a set of performance objectives and a manufacturing process. To manage complexity and time-to-market, SoC designs require a high level of automation and reuse. Digital methodologies are inapplicable to analog IP, which relies on tight control of low-level device and circuit properties that vary widely across manufacturing processes. This analog synthesis solution automates these tedious, technology specific aspects of analog design. Unlike previously proposed approaches, ASF extends the prevalent "schematic and SPICE" methodology used to design analog and mixed-signal circuits. ASF is topology and technology independent and can be easily integrated into a commercial schematic capture design environment. Furthermore, ASF employs a novel numerical optimization formulation that incorporates classical downhill techniques into stochastic search. ASF consistently produces results comparable to expert manual design with 10/spl times/ fewer candidate solution evaluations than previously published approaches that rely on traditional stochastic optimization methods.