A Hierarchical Bottom-up, Equation-based Optimization Design Methodology for RF Transceivers

Over the last decade, the use of mixed-signal circuits on systemon-chip integrated circuits (IC) has increased at a steady rate. The challenges associated with large-scale analog system-level exploration, including early-stage tradeoff analysis, create the bottleneck for mixed-signal system design. Equation-based and simulation-based optimization techniques have been predominant in the exploration of a circuit’s design space. However, these tools are practical only for small electronic systems. We show that this need not be a limitation by establishing a general design methodology for large systems. By decomposing a system into smaller, less complex building blocks, thereby adopting a Hierarchical, Bottom-up (H-BU) approach, we keep the problem tractable, and the tradeoff space can be constructed in a piecewise manner up to the system level. This idea is illustrated via a transmitter segment in Figure 1.

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