iDEAS: a delay estimator and transistor sizing tool for CMOS circuits

The iDEAS algorithm incorporates a delay estimator that uses both the rise and fall delay to find the critical path through a given circuit. A method that attempts to minimize the area-delay product of the circuit is developed to optimize the sizes of transistors along the critical path. These two steps are repeated until the specified delay and area requirements for the circuit are met. This algorithm is designed for use on combinational circuits, and is also applicable to clocked circuits, where each stage of the clocked circuit is combinational.<>