Configurable Analog and Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits

Long design cycles due to the inability to predictsilicon realities is a well-known problem thatplagues analog/RF integrated circuit productdevelopment. As this problem worsens for nanoscaleIC technologies, the high cost of design andmultiple manufacturing spins causes fewer productsto have the volume required to support full customimplementation. We propose a regular analog/RF ICusing metal-mask configurability design methodologyORACLE, which is a combination of reuse and shared-use by formulating the synthesis problem as anoptimization with recourse problem. Using a two-stage geometric programming with recourse approach,ORACLE solves for both the globally optimal sharedand application-specific variables. Furthermore,robust optimization is proposed to treat the designwith variability issue, further enhancing theORACLE methodology by providing yield bound for eachconfiguration of regular designs.

Autorentext

Yang Xu, Ph.D.: Studied Electrical and Computer Engineering at
Carnegie Mellon University. Assistant Professor at Electrical
and Computer Engineering Department of Illinois Institute of
Technology, Chicago.

Klappentext

Long design cycles due to the inability to predict
silicon realities is a well-known problem that
plagues analog/RF integrated circuit product
development. As this problem worsens for nanoscale
IC technologies, the high cost of design and
multiple manufacturing spins causes fewer products
to have the volume required to support full custom
implementation. We propose a regular analog/RF IC
using metal-mask configurability design methodology
ORACLE, which is a combination of reuse and shared-
use by formulating the synthesis problem as an
optimization with recourse problem. Using a two-
stage geometric programming with recourse approach,
ORACLE solves for both the globally optimal shared
and application-specific variables. Furthermore,
robust optimization is proposed to treat the design
with variability issue, further enhancing the
ORACLE methodology by providing yield bound for each
configuration of regular designs.