AnastASICA – Towards Structured and Automated Analog/Mixed-Signal IC Design for Automotive Electronics

Abstract:
In our world based on electronics, the design of analog/mixed-signal (AMS) ICs is still mainly done manually. While digital design benefits from complete synthesis flows, analog lags far behind in terms of development time, cost, and risk. Analog design flows are hardly standardized and necessitate the four eye principle as important quality tool. Thus, highly experienced designers who incorporate engineering and project management skills are required in any project in order to monitor quality and design progress and to identify potential design errors. As designs get increasingly complex in size as well as increasingly complicated due to ever more advanced technologies and chips, the lack of automation and standards is getting severe. AnastASICA is a new German project that pursues an AMS design flow that eases to implement AMS circuitry as systematic as possible. It joins individual proven EDA (electronic design automation) solutions on modeling with SystemC AMS, adaptive AMS circuit design, circuit optimization, and layout generation into one continuous and structured design flow. Design for reuse is a key aspect in the development of this design flow. As a unique approach, the AnastASICA project accommodates the architects of those individual tools, the drivers of the SystemC AMS standard, pioneers of alternative, reuse-driven language-based generator technologies, and experienced AMS designers in order to create a structured and powerful design flow for automotive electronics.