nalog circuits are fascinating artifacts. They manipulate signals whose
informa-
Ationcontentisrichcomparedtodigitalsignalsthatcarryminimalamountofinf-
mation;theyaredelicateinthatanyperturbationduetoparasiticelements,
todelays, to
interactionswithotherelementsandwiththeenvironmentmaycauseasigni?cantloss
ofinformation.
Thedif?cultyindealingwiththeseartifactsistoprotectthemfromall
possibleattacks, evenminorones, fromthephysicalworld.
Theironyisthattheyare
oftenusedtofunnelinformationfromandtothephysicalworldtoandfromtheabstr-
tionofthedigitalworldandforthisfunction, theyareirreplaceable.
Nowonderthen that analog designers form a club of extraordinary
gentlemen where art (or magic?) ratherthanscienceisthesharedtrade.
Theyaredif?culttotrainsinceexperienceand intuitionarethetraitsthat
characterize them. Andthey have dif?cultiesinexplaining what is the
process they use to reach satisfactory results. Tools used for design
(s- ulation) are mainly replacing the test benches of an experimental
lab. However, the growing complexity of the integrated systems being
designed today together with the increasing fragility of analog
components brought about by shrinking geometries and
reducedpowerconsumptionisposingseverechallengestotraditionalanalogdesigners
to produce satisfactory results in a short time. At the same time, the
need for expe- enced analog designers has increased constantly since
almost all designs, because of integration, docontainanalogcomponents.
Thissituationhascreatedastronginterest in developing design
methodologies and supporting tools that are based on rigorous,
mathematically literate, approaches. Doing so will make it possible to
leverage the
expertiseofseasonedanalogdesignersandtotrainnewgenerationsfasterandbetter.
Inthepast, severalattemptshavebeenmadeinacademia
andindustrytocreatethese methodologies and to extend the set of tools
available. They have had questionable acceptance in the analog design
community. However, recently, a ?urry of start-ups
andincreasedinvestmentbyEDAcompaniesinnoveltoolssignalasigni?cantchange
inmarketattentiontotheanalogdomain.
Ipersonallybelievethattosubstantially- prove quality and design time,
tools are simply insuf?cient. A design methodology based on a hierarchy
of abstraction layers, successive re?nement between two ad- cent layers,
and extensive veri?cation at every layer is necessary. To do so, we need
to build theories and models that have strong mathematical foundations.
The analog design technology community is as strong as it has ever been.
