S. Donnay et al., USING TOP-DOWN CAD TOOLS FOR MIXED ANALOG DIGITAL ASICS - A PRACTICALDESIGN CASE/, Analog integrated circuits and signal processing, 10(1-2), 1996, pp. 101-117
A mixed analog/digital ASIC from a real satellite application (a radia
tion detector front-end) has been designed, simulated and processed ac
cording to a hierarchical top-down design methodology, CAD tools (comm
ercial and academic) have been used as much as possible. The top-down
methodology is discussed and illustrated by going through the differen
t steps of the ASIC design, At each level the different choices and tr
adeoffs are briefly discussed and practical difficulties of top-down d
esign are pointed out, One of the most important problems in top-down
mixed-signal ASIC design-modeling and verification-is highlighted and
discussed in detail.