Nominal design of integrated circuits on circuit level by an interactive improvement method

A generalized approach is introduced for the nominal design of integrated circuits using parametric optimization. The optimization method consists of several interactive improvement steps based on circuit simulation and gradient evaluation techniques. Both the overdetermined and underdetermined optimization problems arising from different design situations are discussed. Criteria are given to deduce a set of linearly independent parameters and objectives specifying the circuit's behavior and reducing computation time. As a central assessment criterion of the improvement process, a standardization representation of the relationship between the prospective correction effect and the correction effort is used. A circuit example is used to illustrate the proposed optimization strategy.>