Context-independent performance modeling of operational amplifiers using Pareto fronts

Abstract

The use of performance trade-off fronts, also known as Pareto fronts, in emerging design methodologies for analog integrated circuits is a keystone to overcome the limitations of the traditional top-down methodologies. However, most techniques reported so far to generate the fronts neglect the effect of the surrounding circuitry (such as the output load impedance) on the Pareto-front, thereby making it only valid for the context where the front was generated. This strongly limits its use in hierarchical analog synthesis because of the heavy dependence of key performances on the surrounding circuitry, but, more importantly, because this circuitry remains unknown until the synthesis process. We propose a new technique to generate the trade-off fronts that is independent of the load that the circuit has to drive. This idea is exploited for a Miller operational amplifier, and experimental results show that this is a promising approach to solve the issue.