Optimization for circuit design

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US007783996B2

(12) United States Patent

Hershenson et al.

(io) Patent No.: (45) Date of Patent:

US 7,783,996 B2 Aug. 24, 2010

OPTIMIZATION FOR CIRCUIT DESIGN

Inventors: Mar Hershenson, Los Altos, CA (US); David M. Colleran, San Mateo, CA (US)

Assignee: Magma Design Automation, Inc., San

Jose, CA (US)

Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 167 days.

Appl.No.: 11/900,749

Filed: Sep. 12, 2007

Prior Publication Data

US 2008/0077890 Al Mar. 27, 2008

Related U.S. Application Data

Division of application No. 11/021,278, filed on Dec. 22, 2004, now Pat. No. 7,458,041.

Provisional application No. 60/614,745, filed on Sep. 30, 2004.

Int. CI.

G06F17/50 (2006.01)

U.S. CI 716/2; 716/4

Field of Classification Search 716/2,

716/4

See application file for complete search history.
References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

6,425,111 Bl 7/2002 Hershenson et al.

6,671,663 Bl* 12/2003 Heliums etal 703/14

6,909,330 B2 6/2005 Colleran et al.

6,954,921 B2 10/2005 Hassibietal.

7,162,402 B2 1/2007 Daems et al.

2002/0117736 Al 8/2002 Yamazaki et al.

2002/0184603 Al * 12/2002 Hassibietal 716/2

2003/0202669 Al* 10/2003 Boor 381/111

2005/0146971 Al * 7/2005 Hidaka 365/226

2005/0251373 Al 11/2005 Daems et al.

2008/0072215 Al 3/2008 Boyd etal.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Boyd, Stephen et al., "Generalized Geometric Programming for Circuit Design", Apr. 4, 2005, ISPD. pp. 1-46.*

Boyd, S. et al. Circuit Design Via Geometric Programming, ICCAD Tutorial (presented at annual International Conference on Computer Aided Design meeting), Nov. 11, 2004 (107 pages).

(Continued)

Primary Examiner—Stacy A Whitmore

(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Blakely, Sokoloff, Taylor &

Zafman, LLP

Methods for optimizing design parameters of a circuit are disclosed. In one aspect, an optimization problem includes one or more performance specifications that represent an exponent of a design parameter to be optimized. Various parameters of passive and active circuit devices may be efficiently and accurately optimized as a result. In another aspect, linear performance specifications are included for accurately calculating voltages. In yet other aspects of the invention, three special types of convex optimization problems are disclosed for enabling the above use of exponents of design parameters which provide efficient and accurate calculations of a virtually unlimited array of circuit parameters and performance characteristics.

36 Claims, 12 Drawing Sheets

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Boyd, S.P. et al. A Tutorial on Geometric Programming, Sep. 12, 2004 (62 pages).

Daems, W. Simulation-Based Generation of Posynomial Perfor-
mance Models for the Sizing of Analog Integrated Circuits, in IEEE
Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and
Systems, May 2003, vol. 22, No. 5, pp. 517-534.
Kim, J. et al. Techniques for Improving the Accuracy of Geometric-
Programming Based Analog Circuit Design Optimization, in Pro-
ceedings of International Conference on Computer Aided Design,
Nov. 2004, pp. 863-870.

Li, X. et al. Robust Analog/RL Circuit Design with Projection-Based
Posynomial Modeling, in Proceedings of International Conference
on Computer Aided Design, Nov. 2004, pp. 855-862.
Mandal, P. et al. CMOS Op-Amp Sizing Using a Geometric Program-
ming Formulation, in IEEE Lransactions on Computer-Aided
Design, Jan. 2001, vol. 20, pp. 22-38.

Vanderhaegen, J.P. et al. Automated Design of Operational Lransconductance Amplifiers Using Reversed Geometric Programming, in Proceedings of the 41 st Annual Design Automation Conference, Jun. 7-11, 2004 (6 pages).

Stephen P. Boyd, et al., "A Lutorial On Geometric Programming", Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Sep. 12, 2004, pp. 1-62, Stanford, CA.

"PCL/US2005/033852", Notification Concerning Lransmittal of International Preliminary Report of Patentability and Written Opinion of the International Searching Authority, lOpages, Mailed Mar. 5, 2009.

Notice of Allowance from U.S. Appl. No. 11/900,856, mailed Dec. 2, 2009, 5 pages.

Allowed Claims 1-36 from U.S. Appl. No. 11/900,856, filed Sep. 12, 2007, 7 pages.

* cited by examiner