July 14, 2010 -- With the move to nanometer geometries, IC design is becoming considerably more complex and time consuming. At the same time, analog content is increasing, reflecting strong growth in wireless and sensing technologies, and driven by the consumer, medical and automotive industries. Market research indicates that although analog circuitry takes up only 20 percent of the area of today's modern mixed signal devices, it is likely to account for some 80% of yield loss.

The critical issues here are that due to the complexity of the design and the dramatic increase in process related design rules that have to be considered, mixed signal design, and especially full custom design, is leading to more errors and performance related problems. Manual design and layout is no longer viable, yet automation in the analog design world remains difficult, and is often an anathema to analog designers.

By Paul Double. (Double is founder and CEO of EDA Solutions.)