Amplifier design and optimization using Non Linear Programming

A generalized methodology to optimize the design of single stage amplifier is described. It is observed that a wide variety of constraints applied to the objective function graphically forms a polytope type feasible region. Simplex method and interior point based method are then used to find an optimal value by traversing through each of the corner point and interior, respectively, of the polytope formed. As a consequence, the amplifier design problem can be expressed as a special form of optimization problem called Non Linear Programming (NLP), for which efficient global optimization methods have been developed. Henceforth, we can efficiently determine tradeoffs between competitive performance measures such as small signal gain (Aυ), unity gain frequency (UGF), slew rate (SR) and power. In this paper, the proposed method is first described showing in detail the formulation of the design problem as NLP for a specific amplifier circuit and then applied to a wide variety of amplifier architectures. The proposed method yields completely an automated synthesis of single stage amplifiers directly from the specifications.