W. Kruiskamp et D. Leenaerts, DARWIN - ANALOG CIRCUIT SYNTHESIS BASED ON GENETIC ALGORITHMS, International journal of circuit theory and applications, 23(4), 1995, pp. 285-296
DARWIN is a synthesis tool for generating sized net lists of CMOS op a
mps from performance specifications and process parameters. The synthe
sis process starts with an initial set of randomly generated op amps.
Owing to genetic operator 'crossover' and 'mutation', the population o
f op amps evolves to a population in which several op amps meet the re
quired specifications. During the synthesis process the circuit topolo
gy and circuit parameters (capacitor values, bias currents and transis
tor lengths and widths) evolve simultaneously with the final solution.
The circuit description we use in the genetic algorithm ensures that
all intermediately generated circuits possess a number of qualities th
at are required for a correct functioning of the circuit. Synthesis ex
periments have shown that DARWIN is capable of synthesizing functional
circuits without the need of much design knowledge.