{"title":"Reinforcement learning in integrated circuits: Design, synthesis, layout, and hardware security","authors":"Hakan Taşkıran , Furkan Enes Hacımustafaoğlu , Engin Afacan , Günhan Dündar","doi":"10.1016/j.vlsi.2025.102460","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The growing complexity of semiconductor technology has led to an increased demand for advanced optimization and automation techniques in IC design. Among these, RL has emerged as a promising approach, offering the ability to explore vast design spaces and optimize performance metrics in ways traditional methods struggle to achieve. RL techniques have demonstrated their potential to complement and even outperform conventional methods in analog and RF IC design by autonomously learning optimal design strategies, from circuit synthesis and layout generation to performance optimization. Moreover, RL-based EDA tools have shown significant promise in addressing challenges related to process variation, power efficiency, and design security. In this context, recent progress in the utilization of RL for analog/RF circuit design is reviewed, with coverage of optimization, layout automation, and security, and emphasis placed on its pivotal role in advancing modern IC development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54973,"journal":{"name":"Integration-The Vlsi Journal","volume":"104 ","pages":"Article 102460"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Integration-The Vlsi Journal","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167926025001178","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"COMPUTER SCIENCE, HARDWARE & ARCHITECTURE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The growing complexity of semiconductor technology has led to an increased demand for advanced optimization and automation techniques in IC design. Among these, RL has emerged as a promising approach, offering the ability to explore vast design spaces and optimize performance metrics in ways traditional methods struggle to achieve. RL techniques have demonstrated their potential to complement and even outperform conventional methods in analog and RF IC design by autonomously learning optimal design strategies, from circuit synthesis and layout generation to performance optimization. Moreover, RL-based EDA tools have shown significant promise in addressing challenges related to process variation, power efficiency, and design security. In this context, recent progress in the utilization of RL for analog/RF circuit design is reviewed, with coverage of optimization, layout automation, and security, and emphasis placed on its pivotal role in advancing modern IC development.
期刊介绍:
Integration''s aim is to cover every aspect of the VLSI area, with an emphasis on cross-fertilization between various fields of science, and the design, verification, test and applications of integrated circuits and systems, as well as closely related topics in process and device technologies. Individual issues will feature peer-reviewed tutorials and articles as well as reviews of recent publications. The intended coverage of the journal can be assessed by examining the following (non-exclusive) list of topics:
Specification methods and languages; Analog/Digital Integrated Circuits and Systems; VLSI architectures; Algorithms, methods and tools for modeling, simulation, synthesis and verification of integrated circuits and systems of any complexity; Embedded systems; High-level synthesis for VLSI systems; Logic synthesis and finite automata; Testing, design-for-test and test generation algorithms; Physical design; Formal verification; Algorithms implemented in VLSI systems; Systems engineering; Heterogeneous systems.