Circuit tolerance design by differential evolution with hybrid analysis method

Abstract

With the continued scaling down of electronic device dimensions, circuit design under parameter variations has received increasing interests. In this paper, a new method that combine the differential evolution with hybrid analysis method is presented to solve the worst-case circuit tolerance design problem. The hybrid analysis method is comprised of two commonly used worst-case circuit tolerance analysis approaches, vertex analysis and Monte Carlo analysis. The search direction of differential evolution is leaded by vertex analysis at the first stage, through which we can reduce the computational complexity of fitness calculation dramatically. Monte Carlo analysis, a higher accuracy analysis method, is applied to ensure the quality of the solutions at the second stage. Some of the individuals are reinitialized to enhance the diversity of the population at the beginning of the second stage. By cooperating the two analysis methods, the proposed method can converge to the global optimum or near-optimum solutions more quickly. The experiment results show the effectiveness and efficiency of proposed techniques for the circuit tolerance design.