A framework for designing reusable analog circuits

Recent analog design tools have started to allow designers to archive not only the sized schematics but also some of the objectives that the circuit is trying to achieve. This paper first describes STAR (Schematic Tool for Analog Reuse), a system that captures designer's knowledge as part of the archival circuit representation, and then describes how this system can be used to create portable design modules. Creating portable analog modules require more than just the optimization criteria for the cell. It must also include the constraints on the cell's environment (for proper operation), and how these constraints should scale with technology. Furthermore, the system must help the designer in the current task of creating the design, since it is rare that a designer thinks about creating IP for someone else. We demonstrate the capability and utility of this system by examining the reuse of a phase-locked loop.