Automatic synthesis of RF front-end blocks using multi-objective evolutionary techniques

•Automatic RF circuits sizing, using UMC 130 nm technology•Multiobjective multiconstraint simulator-based optimization approach•Proposal of a new LNA topology and complete description of the circuits•Complete description of the optimization flow•Circuit evaluation using industrial simulators

Typically the design of a Radio-Frequency (RF) circuit is difficult, time-consuming and often based around an iterative process. In this manuscript, an automatic synthesis of three typical blocks of nowadays RF front-end receivers, a narrowband differential low-noise amplifier, a mixer and a local oscillator, is presented. The synthesis of the three circuits was made at sizing level and was carried out by Analog IC Design Automation (AIDA). AIDA is a multi-objective multi-constraint simulator based automatic IC design tool, which optimizes analog circuits through the usage of evolutionary computation. The performance potential of the circuits and tool is evaluated through electrical simulation results, which are finally compared with recently published state-of-the-art works, with overall better results and little time-consumption, proving the surplus value of using an automatic IC design tool in RF circuitry synthesis.