Integrating Multiple Knowledge-based Automation Methodologies into the A/MS IC Design Flow

Analog and mixed-signal (A/MS) IC design is still a largely manual process. It lags far behind its digital counterpart were synthesis methods automate many key design steps. This advantage in digital roots from the possibility of a high degree of abstraction with manageable information loss from which a highly systematic digital flow arose. Not only does it incorporate automation throughout, but it also links the individual flow steps by well-defined interfaces. In analog, to the contrary, both a comparable flow approach and automation is largely missing. Even though key design steps, such as schematic and layout, are meanwhile linked well, other important steps, like breaking down a specification to a suitable topology, are not yet in place. Therefore, design teams develop individual design approaches in order to handle the complexity of analog design all the way from specification to layout. A major challenge is the lack of reproducibility, which roots from the lack of expert knowledge stored in the design data. Thus, in this tutorial paper, we address the shortcomings of the A/MS design flow and discuss how knowledge-based automaton methods can both systematize and automate key design steps. Also, we discuss how the steps can be linked together in order to form a systematic design flow. Our proposed A/MS IC design design flow considers automation from specification over schematic level to the layout level.