An explorative tile-based technique for automated constraint transformation, placement and routing of high frequency analog filters

The paper presents an original methodology and algorithms for designing high-frequency analog filters. Filters are realized to meet AC performance specifications as closely as possible. Addressed design steps include parameter sizing, placement and routing. The explorative design method, based on tabu search, takes into account layout parasitics of the circuit. The synthesis strategy alternates between (1) a uniform sampling of the solution space and (2) a focused search of attractive regions. We also discuss the usage of a layout representation based on symbolic tiles for analog system synthesis. Experiments on filters demonstrate the quality of our solution.