Correlation controlled sampling for efficient variability analysis of analog circuits

The Monte Carlo (MC) simulation is a well-known solution to the statistical analysis of analog circuits in the presence of device mismatch. Despite MC's superior accuracy compared with that of the sensitivity-based techniques, an accurate analysis that involves traditional MC-based techniques requires large number of circuit simulations. In this paper, a correlation controlled sampling technique is developed to enhance the quality of the variance estimations. The superiority of the developed technique is verified by variability analysis of the input-referred offset voltage of a comparator, the frequency mismatch of a ring oscillator, and the AC parameters of an operational transconductance amplifier.