Analogue design - Notes are not enough

Abstract

Analogue designers need to make greater use of constraints management to avoid making mistakes as they deal with higher-complexity systems. Faced with shrinking feature sizes and increased densities, analogue designers are forced more and more to rely on layout craft and specialised place-and-route techniques to meet design specifications and minimise second-order parasitic effects. Modern design-rule-checking (DRC) rule decks are insufficient by themselves in terms of guaranteeing manufacturability. Traditionally, analogue designers have solved this problem by engaging in some form of design-intent dialogue or communication with the back-end mask designers responsible for layout.