Conclusions

New semiconductor technologies offer the possibility to realize complex mixed-signal electronic systems performing multiple tasks and operating at high frequencies. Whereas in digital design abstractions are easily made of various non-ideal physical effects, these phenomena do have a great influence on analog systems. As a result, designing analog circuits is a complicated and time-consuming task, even for analog systems containing only a fraction of the number of devices typically found in their digital counterparts. Automation and design re-use are heavily exploited in digital design, while analog design depends more on the experience of the designer. To close this productivity gap between digital design practice and the capabilities of the technology on one hand and the traditional analog design processes on the other hand, analog EDA tools are most welcome.