ISAID: qualitative reasoning and trade-off analysis in analog IC design automation

Any equation-based design automation system requires some form of post-simulation circuit adjustment phase. ISAID is an analog design automation system which facilitates both circuit generation and post-simulation circuit correction. Circuit generation is performed in a hierarchical manner and circuit correction is achieved by novel qualitative reasoning methods, as described here. The qualitative manipulation of simulation results and the analysis of tradeoffs' can be performed, which can also be used to provide insight to the designer. After a short overview of ISAID and the circuit generator, the authors focus on the circuit corrector and describe the principles for qualitative circuit correction and adjustment estimation and provide several examples.<>