The Analog Design Gap

Aggregating data is the basis of modern production systems and should be considered from system requirement to analog layout: Sensors are everywhere. In the context of Industry 4.0 and IoT, we face an ever-increasing demand for high-quality sensing. Data acquisition is fundamental to adaptive production chains. So aggregating data isn't just some nice-to-have feature. It is the basis of modern production systems. But don't we have sensors already? Isn't everything fine? When collecting data from the "real world," there is no other way than integrating analog components into Systems-on-Chip (SoC). But digital components provide a noisy environment for sensitive analog components. In addition, the design flows of both analog and digital are very different. The digital design flow, although being far from simple push-button, is highly automated with flow components that utilize complete automation. Analog design, on the other hand, is something of an art. Just like analog designers differ, their design approaches (and also verification approaches) do, as well.