High-Level Modeling and Synthesis of Analog Integrated Systems (Analog Circuits and Signal Processing)

287 Pages·2008·1.87 MB·English

by  Ewout S.J. Martens

High-Level Modeling and Synthesis
of Analog Integrated Systems
ANALOGCIRCUITSANDSIGNALPROCESSINGSERIES
ConsultingEditor:MohammedIsmail.OhioStateUniversity
TitlesinSeries:
THEGM/IDDESIGNMETHODOLOGYFORCMOSANALOGLOWPOWERINTEGRATEDCIRCUITS
Jespers,PaulG.A.
ISBN-10:0-387-47100-6
CIRCUITANDINTERCONNECTDESIGNFORHIGHBIT-RATEAPPLICATIONS
Veenstra,Hugo,Long,JohnR.
ISBN:978-1-4020-6882-9
HIGH-RESOLUTIONIF-TO-BASEBANDSIGMADELTAADCFORCARRADIOS
Silva,PauloG.R.,Huijsing,JohanH.
ISBN:978-1-4020-8163-7
SILICON-BASEDRFFRONT-ENDSFORULTRAWIDEBANDRADIOS
Safarian,Aminghasem,Heydari,Payam
ISBN:978-1-4020-6721-1
HIGH-LEVELMODELINGANDSYNTHESISOFANALOGINTEGRATEDSYSTEMS
Martens,EwoutS.J.,Gielen,Georges
ISBN:978-1-4020-6801-0
MULTI-BANDRFFRONT-ENDSWITHADAPTIVEIMAGEREJECTION
ADECT/BLUETOOTHCASESTUDY
Vidojkovic,V.,vanderTang,J.,Leeuwenburgh,A.,vanRoermund,A.H.M.
ISBN:978-1-4020-6533-0
BASEBANDANALOGCIRCUITSFORSOFTWAREDEFINEDRADIO
Giannini,Vito,Craninckx,Jan,Baschirotto,Andrea
ISBN:978-1-4020-6537-8
DESIGNOFHIGHVOLTAGEXDSLLINEDRIVERSINSTANDARDCMOS
Serneels,Bert,Steyaert,Michiel
ISBN:978-1-4020-6789-1
CMOSMULTI-CHANNELSINGLE-CHIPRECEIVERSFORMULTI-GIGABITOPT...
Muller,P.,Leblebici,Y.
ISBN978-1-4020-5911-7
ANALOG-BASEBANDARCHITECTURESANDCIRCUITS
FORMULTISTANDARDANDLOW-VOLTAGEWIRELESSTRANSCEIVERS
Mak,PuiIn,U,Seng-Pan,Martins,RuiPaulo
ISBN:978-1-4020-6432-6
FULL-CHIPNANOMETERROUTINGTECHNIQUES
Ho,Tsung-Yi,Chang,Yao-Wen,Chen,Sao-Jie
ISBN:978-1-4020-6194-3
ANALOGCIRCUITDESIGNTECHNIQUESAT0.5V
Chatterjee,S.,Kinget,P.,Tsividis,Y.,Pun,K.P.
ISBN-10:0-387-69953-8
LOW-FREQUENCYNOISEINADVANCEDMOSDEVICES
vonHaartman,M.,Östling,M.
ISBN978-1-4020-5909-4
SWITCHED-CAPACITORTECHNIQUESFORHIGH-ACCURACYFILTERANDADC...
Quinn,P.J.,Roermund,A.H.M.v.
ISBN978-1-4020-6257-5
ULTRALOWPOWERCAPACITIVESENSORINTERFACES
Bracke,W.,Puers,R.(etal.)
ISBN978-1-4020-6231-5
BROADBANDOPTO-ELECTRICALRECEIVERSINSTANDARDCMOS
Hermans,C.,Steyaert,M.
ISBN978-1-4020-6221-6
CMOSSINGLECHIPFASTFREQUENCYHOPPINGSYNTHESIZERSFORWIRELESS
MULTI-GIGAHERTZAPPLICATIONS
Bourdi,Taoufik,Kale,Izzet
ISBN:978-1-4020-5927-8
CMOSCURRENT-MODECIRCUITSFORDATACOMMUNICATIONS
Yuan,Fei
ISBN:0-387-29758-8
ADAPTIVELOW-POWERCIRCUITSFORWIRELESSCOMMUNICATIONS
Tasic,Aleksandar,Serdijn,WouterA.,Long,JohnR.
ISBN:978-1-4020-5249-1
PRECISIONTEMPERATURESENSORSINCMOSTECHNOLOGY
Pertijs,MichielA.P.,Huijsing,JohanH.
ISBN-10:1-4020-5257-X
Ewout S.J. Martens • Georges G.E. Gielen
High-Level Modeling
and Synthesis of Analog
Integrated Systems
123
EwoutS.J.Martens GeorgesG.E.Gielen
KULeuven KULeuven
Belgium Belgium
ISBN978-1-4020-6801-0 e-ISBN978-1-4020-6802-7
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2007942726
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To my mother and father
Preface
As the miniaturization of semiconductor technology continues, electronic sys-
tems on chips offer 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 automa-
tiontoolstobuildhugesystems,thelackofsupportbycomputerprogramsfor
different abstraction levels makes analog design a time-consuming handcraft
which limits the possibilities to implement large systems. Various approaches
forfindingoptimalvaluesfortheparametersofanalogcells,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 ex-
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.Inthefirstpart,thecharacteristicsof
the analog design process are systematically analyzed and several approaches
for automated analog synthesis are summarized. Comparison of their proper-
ties with the requirements for high-level synthesis of analog and mixed-signal
systems results in a new design paradigm: the high-level design flow 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 different architectures.
ThemodelingstrategyisfurtherelaboratedinPartII.Genericbehavioral
models allow to easily represent a wide range of diverse architectures with
several non-idealities and, at the same time, to exploit specific aspects of a
class of systems leading to efficient evaluation of the performance. Two novel
modelsaredefinedinthisbook.Thefirstoneadoptsatime-domainapproach
and is suited for classes like ∆Σ modulators and sampled-data systems. For
thesecondmodel,anewfrequency-domainframeworkhasbeendeveloped(the
Phase-Frequency Transfer model) which allows the representation of classes
of RF systems like front-ends of wireless receivers.
VIII Preface
Finally,inthethirdpartofthisbook,thesynthesisstrategyhasbeencon-
cretizedwithanewalgorithmforhigh-leveloptimizationofanalogandmixed-
signal systems. This top-down heterogeneous approach naturally deals with
diverse performance characteristics and optimization targets, allows to com-
binevarioussourcesofdesignandoptimizationknowledgeandexploresseveral
architectures. The results of a prototype implementation are discussed. This
dedicated C++-program is capable of generating differenttypes of analog-to-
digital converters for different sets of specifications.
This book is the result of 6 years of scientific research within the MICAS
research group of the department of electrical engineering (ESAT) at the
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. Many people have contributed to
the results and presentation of this work and I would like to thank them. In
thefirstplace,theresearchtopicwasintroducedtomebyProfessorG. Gielen.
Based on his extended experience in the field of design automation of analog
circuits, he was capable to provide stimulating daily advice and useful ideas
during the research. The first version of this text was edited thoroughly and
his comments have led to various improvements. Furthermore, I got the pos-
sibility to present the results of this work at several internal conferences and
to meet and have interesting discussions with various people.
My first steps into analog and digital micro-electronics were taken under
supervision of Professor W. Sansen (K.U. Leuven) and Professor H. De Man
(K.U. Leuven and Imec), respectively. I am pleased that they were willing
to make some time free for carefully reading this text and for making vari-
ous suggestions to improve its quality. Further, Professor W. Dehaene (K.U.
Leuven), Professor J. Vandewalle (K.U. Leuven) and Professor P. Rombouts
(R.U. Gent) have read and evaluated this text positively.
For the major part of this work, I obtained a grant from the the Funds
for Scientific Research (F.W.O.) of the Flemish government. I would like to
thank them for this financial support which has made this work possible.
Further,mygratitudegoestoMartinVogelsandKennethFranckenforthe
collaborationwiththemonthesubjectof∆Σmodulators.Manyotherpeople
of the MICAS research group helped me to understand various aspects of
analogandmixed-signaldesignandsolvenumerousproblems.Also,themany
discussions – technical and others – and activities have resulted in pleasant
memories of my stay at MICAS and the people that I met there.
Finally, my mother and father supported me implicitly during my stay at
the university, both as a student and as a research assistant. They gave me
the chance to start my studies and helped me with all indispensable matters.
I would like to dedicate this work to them.
Ewout Martens
Leuven, July 2007
Contents
1 Introduction............................................... 1
1.1 The world of electronics .................................. 1
1.1.1 A historic perspective.............................. 1
1.1.2 An economic perspective ........................... 2
1.1.3 A technological perspective ......................... 5
1.1.4 A design perspective............................... 8
1.2 Analog design automation ................................ 9
1.2.1 Research areas .................................... 9
1.2.2 High-level synthesis of analog and mixed-signal
systems .......................................... 11
References .................................................. 12
Part I Analog Design Methodologies
2 Foundations of Design Flows for AMS Systems ............ 17
2.1 Introduction ............................................ 17
2.2 Analog and mixed-signal systems .......................... 17
2.3 Description and abstraction levels ......................... 19
2.3.1 Definitions ....................................... 19
2.3.2 Operations in the abstraction–description plane ....... 23
2.4 Parameters and performance.............................. 25
2.5 Design flows for analog and mixed-signal systems............ 28
2.5.1 The generic design flow ............................ 28
2.5.2 Simplified generic design flows ...................... 30
2.5.3 Specification of the generic design flow ............... 32
2.6 Conclusions............................................. 32
References .................................................. 33
X Contents
3 Analog and Mixed-Signal Design Strategies................ 37
3.1 Introduction ............................................ 37
3.2 Classification ........................................... 37
3.3 Historic overview ........................................ 39
3.3.1 Selection before or after dimensioning................ 39
3.3.2 Selection during dimensioning....................... 49
3.3.3 Top-down creation................................. 53
3.3.4 Bottom-up generation.............................. 57
3.3.5 Overview......................................... 61
3.4 Design strategy based on generic behavior .................. 63
3.4.1 Design flow....................................... 64
3.4.2 Generic behavioral models.......................... 67
3.5 Conclusions............................................. 70
References .................................................. 71
Part II Generic Behavioral Modeling
4 Time-Domain Generic Behavioral Models.................. 85
4.1 Introduction ............................................ 85
4.2 Time-domain modeling approaches ........................ 86
4.2.1 Time-domain simulation ........................... 86
4.2.2 Time-marching algorithms.......................... 87
4.2.3 Sampled-data methods............................. 89
4.2.4 Waveform relaxation............................... 90
4.2.5 Collocation methods ............................... 91
4.2.6 Conclusion ....................................... 92
4.3 A model for continuous-time ∆Σ modulators................ 92
4.3.1 The generic behavioral model ....................... 93
4.3.2 Templates for the generic functions ..................102
4.3.3 Implementation of the generic behavioral model .......122
4.4 A generic behavioral model for sampled-data systems ........129
4.4.1 General sampled-data systems ......................129
4.4.2 Generic behavioral model...........................130
4.4.3 Templates for the generic functions ..................133
4.4.4 Implementation ...................................137
4.5 Conclusions.............................................139
References ..................................................140
5 Frequency-Domain Generic Behavioral Models ............145
5.1 Introduction ............................................145
5.2 Frequency-domain modeling approaches ....................145
5.2.1 Frequency-domain simulation .......................145
5.2.2 Harmonic balance algorithms .......................147
5.2.3 Approaches with time-domain equivalent low-pass
models...........................................148