Introduction to the special issue on SM2ACD 2010

Abstract

Welcome to the Special Issue of SM2ACD 2010 workshop (initially SMACD). This workshop is the XIth International Workshop on Symbolic and Numerical Methods, Modeling and Applications to Circuit Design held on 4–6 October 2010 in Gammarth—Tunisia. The history of SM(2)ACD workshops goes back to the early nineties. The first SMACD was held in 1991 in France. Throughout the past 20 years, SMACD has been organized at various European locations: Italy (1992), Spain (1994), Belgium (1996), Germany (1998), Portugal (2000), Romania (2002), Poland (2004), Italy (2006), and Germany (2008). This Special Issue of the Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing consists of the expanded and carefully revised version of papers presented at SM2ACD 2010. Based on workshop review scores and feedback from the sessions chairs on the presentations, nine best papers were selected for publication in this issue from all the contributions at the workshop, and were subject to the normal journal review and refereeing process. These papers cover a large variety of the SM2ACD topics. (Eleven invitations for contribution to this special issue were sent. Ten were received. After the assessment of the reviewers, nine of them have been accepted for publication). The first paper, by Zhigang Hao, Sheldon X.-D. Tan, Esteban Tlelo-Cuautle, Jacob Relles, Chao Hu, Wenjian Yu, Yici Cai and Guoyong Shi, presents a novel method for statistical inductance extraction and modeling for interconnects considering process variations. The proposed method uses the collocation-based spectral stochastic method where orthogonal polynomials are used to represent the statistical processes. The second paper, by Francesco Grasso, Antonio Luchetta, Stefano Manetti and Maria Cristina Piccirilli, presents a novel identification technique for lumped models of general distributed circuits (microwave transmission lines, monolithic integrated circuits and filters) that is based on a hybrid multi-valued neuron neural network with a modified layer and learning process. The third paper, by David Guilherme, Jorge Guilherme and Nuno Horta, presents an optimization methodology for continuous time loop-filters design applied to class-D amplifiers. The proposed methodology is based on an evolutionary optimization approach which integrates both the topology selection and circuit sizing by automatically generating optimal sized topologies and performance tradeoffs. The fourth paper, by Antonietta De Nardo, Nicola Femia and Walter Zamboni, presents a new symbolic method for the design of filter capacitors in DC–DC switching converters, using a combination of a ceramic and an electrolytic capacitor; an effective method for the design of mixed electrolytic/ceramic capacitor-based passive filters. The fifth paper, by Pedro Pereira, Maria Helena Fino, Fernando Coito and Mario Ventim-Neves, addresses a technology-aware modified genetic optimization-based approach for the design of RF integrated inductors where the double p-model is used for the characterization of the inductor’s behavior. The sixth paper, by Florin Constantinescu, Miruna Nitescu, Alexandru Gabriel Gheorghe, Aurelian Florea and Olivier Llopis, presents a nonlinear circuit model of power BAW resonators and filters, which takes into account the parasitic of the resonator connection to the measurement bench. New models for the anti-series and the anti-parallel connections of two resonators are also proposed. The seventh paper, by Elisenda Roca, Manuel VelascoJimenez, Rafael Castro-Lopez and Francisco V. Fernandez, M. Fakhfakh (&) University of Sfax, B.P. 1069, 3018 Sfax, Tunisia e-mail: mourad.fakhfakh@ieee.org