Analog Integrated Circuit Design Conceptualization

Abstract

The electrical signals of the natural world behave in an essentially continuous manner. In contrast, the world of electronic design, which seeks to process these continuous or analog signals, is predominantly discrete or digital. Motivated and refined largely by the evolution of the digital computer, digital design affords the electronic design community a powerful structured and portable design methodology. Substantial improvements in the productivity of the digital designer have been realized over the past decade through the use of computer-based design automation tools which leverage the design methodology. The effectiveness of digital design and test methods and the comparative lack of same in the analog domain have made digital architectures the dominant choice of system designers. As the limits in signal power, dynamic range, signal precision, and signal bandwidth are expanded the use of continuous signal or analog design methods becomes essential. The complicated architectures of proposed mixed analog/digital circuits and the inherent complexity of the analog design process simply overwhelm the capabilities of conventional design automation methodologies.