Analog EDA Using Knowledge-Based Methods

The analog IC design productivity lags far behind the digital IC design productivity. Thus, analog IC design draws high risks to design projects. The root causes for this are 1) analog IC design is a largely manual process, 2) poor abstraction leads to poor automation of design steps, and 3) expert knowledge is not captured, thus design effort is not reproducible.
The proposed solution focusses on combining individual automation steps into the design flow as follows. First, the analog design flow is systematized. Second, individual design steps are automated (at least partly). Third, the A/MS design flow limitations are addressed through knowledge-based automation methods. Fourth, the steps are integrated into one A/MS design flow. And finally, the proposed A/MS IC design flow incorporates automation to many steps from specification through layout.