Automated Design of Analog Circuits Starting with Idealized Elements

This paper presents an automated design of analog circuits starting with idealized elements. Our system first synthesizes circuits using idealized elements by a genetic algorithm (GA). GA evolves circuit topologies and transconductances of idealized elements to achieve the given specifications. The use of idealized elements effectively reduces search space and make the synthesis efficient. Second, idealized elements in a generated circuit are replaced by MOSFETs. Through the two processes, a circuit satisfying the given specifications can be obtained. The capability of this method was demonstrated through experiments of synthesis of a trans-impedance amplifier and a cubing circuit and benchmark tests. The results of the benchmark tests show the proposed CAD is more than 10 times faster than the CAD which does not use idealized elements.