General Goals


The objectives of this project are to develop seamless top-down design methods for integrated analog and mixed-signal systems and to achieve a high level of automation and reuse in the A/MS design process. These efforts are motivated by the urgent need to close the current gap in the industrial design flow between system specification and design on the one hand and block-level circuit design on the other hand. Hence, the goal is to get a continuous - tools and methods supported - design flow from top-level specification to layout, comparable to what is already available today in the pure digital domain. This is a crucial step in maintaining and leveraging the competitive edge Europe already has in AM/S-based system design.

To meet this demand, the consortium will develop new methods and tools that will allow top-down design, bottom-up validation, and mixed-level, mixed-domain simulation of A/MS systems (incl. software) in a consistent design and simulation environment.

The focus of the project work will be on applications in the area of automotive electronics, data communications and wireless telecommunications. As the latter increasingly include RF functionality, special emphasis will be put on the development of modeling, simulation and design techniques for systems that involve both RF and mixed-signal components. An important application of this activity is the creation of a seamless and tool-supported design method for sigma-delta converters as these play a crucial role in most application areas covered by this proposal. In order to achieve the overall objectives, the points outlined below will be pursued:

• the creation of a seamless top-down design method from system specification down to layout generation,
• direct customer involvement in the system specification process through executable behavioral models,
• mixed-level, mixed-domain simulation and co-simulation of A/MS systems, including analog and digital hardware, non-electrical components (e.g. sensors) as well as software,
• more EDA support during the following design steps
• system specification,
• refinement methods for block specification,
• modeling, circuit synthesis, layout generation,
• reuse in the design process,
• development of new algorithms and software tools for
• simultaneous RF/mixed-signal simulation (time and frequency domain),
• efficient modeling and simulation of behavioral properties of complex analog/mixed-signal cells, e.g. sigma-delta converters and PLLs,
• computer-aided generation of behavioral models,
• reuse-oriented block design methods, e.g. for process migration,
• validation of the developed methods and tools through use in real design projects from the above-mentioned application fields.

Special importance is attached to the last point: the aim is to employ the new methods in selected demonstrator projects, such as Bluetooth or smart sensor systems, and to illustrate the increase in efficiency achieved in the system and block design processes. The ultimate objective here is a significant reduction of the design time required for A/MS components.

ANASTASIA+ builds upon the results achieved in the MEDEA projects ANASTASIA and SADE. However, this project is not a simple extension of the work done in these previous projects. Due to the new, combined effort a new quality in the achievable results has become possible. This is due to the more powerful project consortium, including tool providers like ANACAD, ComCAD and ITWM as well as a much more broadened set of application partners. Moreover, it is only now that standardized A/MS languages like VHDL-AMS have matured into well-defined standards. One project partner (ANACAD) provides the first commercially available VHDL-AMS simulator. Thus, these languages can serve as a true bracket for the whole design cycle.

Hence, for the first time a really complete and tool supported top-down A/MS design flow will become possible, aiming at a breakthrough in mixed signal design methods, resulting also in the next generation of commercial A/MS design tools. Moreover, as A/MS design will have much more matured during the project runtime, the consortium aims at significantly influencing international standards through bodies like VSIA and/or IEEE.