A Design-Aware Parasitic-Aware Simulation-Based Tool for the Design of RF Amplifiers

Abstract

In this paper, a tool for the design of RF amplifiers is proposed. The motivation of this paper is to decrease the time taken for the design of RF amplifiers, to provide accurate designs by including parasitic modelling within the optimization process, and to guarantee the avoidance of infinite optimization loops during design automation. Designaware optimization guarantees reaching optimum design parameters in a short time. It avoids the entrance to no-solution space which is a challenge when using random optimization algorithms. The offered tool gives design flexibility when compared to template-based algorithms. Parasitic-aware optimization guarantees achieving accurate designs that result in the same performance after post layout simulations. Using an RF simulator for evaluation guarantees a high level of accuracy. The tool designs RF amplifiers that operate up to 15GHz. The tool validation is carried out designing three 65nm TSMC CMOS RF amplifiers operating at 7GHz, lOGHz, and 13GHz. The required performance specifications, entered to the tool for validation, were achieved. The required specifications were a minimum OPldB of10 dBm, a minimum gain of10 dB, and a minimum OIP3 of 20 dBm.