Cell-based, synthesizable mixed-signal circuits such as ADPLLs, ADCs, and LDOs are gaining significant traction. This is fueled by the exponentially increasing number of DRC rules in advanced nodes, added restrictions on custom layout, and overall increase in design time for full-custom, analog designs. This talk focuses on a different technique for analog design automation that borrows from the digital design flow. I will show how we can describe ADPLLs and LDOs using a combination of standard cells, and a small number of auxiliary cells. These aux cells are no larger than a D-flipflop, and are drawn on the standard cell grid. This means they can be included in existing digital synthesis and automatic place & route (APR) flows, leveraging these very powerful commercial tools. I will present our innovations at the architecture level, and on how we drive the EDA tools, in order to improve performance. Examples and measurement results will be shown, from fabricated ADPLLs and LDOs in TSMC 65nm and GF 12nm, demonstrating the ease of porting these designs across processes. Speaker(s): , David Wentzloff Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/369117

This is a weekly session of the CIT Summer Series, with David Alan Grier presenting The Generations of Computing and the Coming Data Age : If you look carefully at the development of computing, you can see clear generational cycles. These cycles are marked by a sharp change of technology and a group of young leaders taking advantage of those changes. There is clearly a period of 20 years in which these leaders rise to prominence in the field before passing command to the next generation. We can point to the mainframe generation of the Fifties, the Software/PC Generation of the 70s, the Internet/Mobile Generation of the 90s. We are clearly nearing the end of the 90s cycle and need to start asking what follows and who will be the next generation. This talk considers the extent to which data will be the next driving technology and the extent to which we are already shifting towards the data generation of leaders. Speaker(s): David Alan Grier, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/364007