As the miniaturization of semiconductor technology continues, electronic
s- tems on chips o?er a more extensive and more complex functionality
with better performance, higher frequencies and less power consumption.
Whereas digital designers can take full advantage of the availability of
design auto- tiontoolstobuildhugesystems,
thelackofsupportbycomputerprogramsfor di?erent abstraction levels makes
analog design a time-consuming handcraft which limits the possibilities
to implement large systems. Various approaches
for?ndingoptimalvaluesfortheparametersofanalogcells, likeopamps, have
been investigated since the mid-1980s, and they have made their entrance
in commercial applications. However, a larger impact on the performance
is - pected if tools are developed which operate on a higher abstraction
level and consider multiple architectural choices to realize a
particular functionality. In this book, the opportunities, conditions,
problems, solutions and systematic methodologies for this new generation
of analog CAD tools are examined. Theoutlineofthisbookisasfollows.
Inthe?rstpart, thecharacteristicsof the analog design process are
systematically analyzed and several approaches for automated analog
synthesis are summarized. Comparison of their prop- ties with the
requirements for high-level synthesis of analog and mixed-signal systems
results in a new design paradigm: the high-level design ?ow based on
generic behavior. This design approach involves a modeling strategy
using generic behavioral models and a synthesis strategy leading to the
exploration of a heterogeneous design space containing di?erent
architectures. The modeling strategy is further elaborated in Part
