Automated synthesis methodology for reliable RF integrated circuits

Project Information

SYSTEMIC-RF

Grant agreement ID: 892431

DOI

10.3030/892431

Project closed

EC signature date 20 April 2020

Start date 1 September 2021

End date 31 August 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 147 815,04

EU contribution

€ 147 815,04

Coordinated by

INSTITUTO DE TELECOMUNICACOES
Portugal

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SYSTEMIC-RF (Automated synthesis methodology for reliable RF integrated circuits)

Reporting period: 2021-09-01 to 2023-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Due to the constant need for connectivity, radio-frequency (RF) circuits will be of upmost importance in applications developed for the Internet of Things (IoT), the fifth-generation (5G) broadband technology and electronic health (eHealth) monitoring. However, the design of RF circuits in nanometric technologies for IoT/5G/eHealth applications is becoming extraordinarily difficult due to the high complexity and demanding performances of such circuits/systems. The need for high performance, low power, low voltage and low area circuits is immense and traditional design methodologies based on iterative, mostly manual, processes are unable to meet such challenges. Consequently, current EDA tools are getting out-of-date because they were developed to support that kind of traditional methodologies. Also, the short time-to-market demanded by nowadays IoT/5G/eHealth applications is creating a design gap, thus leading to a productivity decrease in the deployment of such IoT/5G/eHealth applications. In this framework, the focus of the SYSTEMIC-RF (Automated synthesis methodology for reliable RF integrated circuits) project was to develop a new design methodology that allows optimization-based synthesis approaches of RF circuits, where the circuit sizing and layout are treated in a complete and automated integrated fashion, in order to achieve fully optimal designs in much shorter times than traditional approaches. Moreover, the developed methodology also takes into account circuits' and systems' time-zero variability, and was integrated in a state-of-the-art EDA tool in order to ease its usability. This EDA tool will definitely help RF designers to meet the very demanding specifications of IoT/5G/eHealth applications in a more efficient manner.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

One of the most problematic issues in the design of RF circuits is the lack of models for passive components. The SYSTEMIC-RF project started by developing machine learning models for inductors and transformers. These models present a clear advance in the state-of-the-art by being valid up to high frequencies (150GHz), hence valid for operation in the mm-Wave regime. As a dissemination results, for this part of the project, a paper was published in the international conference SMACD 2022 with initial results (where a runner-up best paper award was granted) and a version was extended and published in IEEE Journal of Microwaves, a flagship journal of the most important society in the area (the MTT-S: IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Society). A tool, PACOSYT, was developed implementing such models for inductors and transformers. This tool is made open source (https://github.com/nunocclourenco/pacosyt) so that it can be used by the community to enhance their RF circuit designs with more optimal inductors and transformers.

After developing the desired models for inductors and transformers, these have been integrated in a wider tool, for circuit automated design. Several designs have been achieved using such automated design methodology, from a low-noise amplifier, to a voltage-controlled oscillator and a power amplifier (all at 28GHz). A prototype was fabricated using this methodology (an LNA) and the specifications obtained are well above the state-of-the-art, proving that the SYSTEMIC-RF project was successful in developing a methodology that can help RF designers in achieving superior performances in an efficient manner.

Regarding exploitation and dissemination, Dr. Passos, made several talks, both for industry and academia, presenting the SYSTEMIC-RF project, and also participated in a radio program for a Portuguese radio station, disseminating the project to wider audiences. Regarding scientific publications, 8 different publications were achieved (3 journals and 5 conferences), and three more are still in review process (1 journal and 2 conferences).


It can be concluded that the implementation of all WP of the project was a success and the exploitation and dissemination results also agree (and even surpassed) with what was proposed originally.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The main research objective of the SYSTEMIC-RF proposal is to develop methodologies and supporting tools to assist the design of RF systems with optimal performances for demanding applications such as eHealth or IoT. The advantages of the SYSTEMIC-RF for circuit design include its ability to perform a wide design space exploration towards optimal performances, the ability to take into account process mismatch and circuit reliability, the capability to automatically perform the circuit layout and take into account the parasitics during the circuit optimization, and, finally, the aptitude to reach a system level design rather than only performing circuit-level synthesis.
Hence, the SYSTEMIC-RF proposal represents a clear advance beyond the RF IC design automation state-of-the-art.Furthermore the SYSTEMIC-RF methodology software will be made available to all analog/RF designers upon request through the following website (https://www.aidasoft.com/Home). Moreover, the tool PACOSYT, for designing inductors and transformers up to 150GHz is also made open source (https://github.com/nunocclourenco/pacosyt) so that it can be used by the community to enhance their RF circuit designs with more optimal inductors and transformers. By using the tools and methodologies developed in SYSTEMIC-RF project, designers will have the ability to use new powerful tools that can speed up the circuit design stage having an active impact on H2020 priorities such as the personalized healthcare, by e.g. designing circuits that improve our ability to monitor health.

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