Supervision : Marie-Minerve LOUËRAT

Co-supervision : ISKANDER Ramy

Extending SystemC-AMS standard to Modeling, Design and Verification of Mixed-signal Systems

Mixed-signal applications are among the fastest growing market segments in the electronics and semiconductor industry. This is driven by the growth opportunities in mobile communication, networking, power management, automotive, medical, imaging, and security applications, which all require analog and mixed-signal (AMS) content. One bottleneck exists if the designs include analog components together with digital ones. Digital design has a well-defined, top-down design methodology, but AMS design has traditionally been an ad hoc custom design process, it is more time-consuming interactive process and fully based on designer’s expertise. The major difficulty is how to model the impact of circuit non-idealities and technology process variations on system- level performances.

In this thesis, we present an unified modeling, design and verification platform with a fast sizing and biasing methodology. The proposed methodology propagates the circuit-level non-idealities into system-level simulations in a very natural way. The methodology synchronizes SystemC-AMS TDF MoC and electrical circuit simulator (SPICE), which enables to mix non- conservative system-level model with conservative nonlinear circuit netlist. Besides, we explain how UVM-SystemC-AMS developed in the FP7 Verdi project, provides an unified methodology for the verification of systems having interconnected AMS, HW/SW. In order to explore the effectiveness of the proposed methodology, two case studies are investigated: a 3-stage 6-bit ADC pipeline and a voltage regulator for an implantable telemetric system. The problem of hierarchical design is illustrated in the 3-stage 6-bit ADC pipeline while the problem of system architecture with feedback loop is illustrated in the implantable telemetric system.

2012-2015 Publications

• 2015
  • Y. Li : “Extending SystemC-AMS standard to Modeling, Design and Verification of Mixed-signal Systems ”, thesis, phd defence 06/17/2015, supervision Louërat, Marie-Minerve, co-supervision : Iskander, Ramy (2015)
  • Y. Li, Zh. Wang, F. Pêcheux, M.‑M. Louërat, M. Barnasconi, Th. Vörtler, K. Einwich : “AMS System-level exploration and verification using UVM in SystemC and SystemC AMS”, 2^nd Workshop Design Automation for Understanding Hardware Designs (DUHDe), Grenoble, France (2015)
  • A. Malak, Y. Li, R. Iskander, F. Durbin, F. Javid, M.‑M. Louërat, A. Tissot, J.‑M. Guebhard : “Fast multidimensional optimization of analog circuits initiated by monodimensional global Peano explorations”, Integration, the VLSI Journal, vol. 48, pp. 198-212, (Elsevier) (2015)
  • Y. Li, H. Zou, Y. Moursy, R. Iskander, R. Sobot, M.‑M. Louërat : “Optimization and Co-Simulation of an Implantable Telemetry System by Linking System Models to Nonlinear Circuits”, chapter in Computational Intelligence in Analog an Mixed-Signal (AMS) and Radio-Frequency (RF) Circuit Design, pp. 83-113, (Springer) (2015)
• 2014
  • Th. Vörtler, Th. Klotz, K. Einwich, Y. Li, Zh. Wang, M.‑M. Louërat, J.‑P. Chaput, F. Pêcheux, R. Iskander, M. Barnasconi : “Enriching UVM in SystemC with AMS extensions for randomization and coverage”, Design and Verification Conference and Exhibition (DVCON Europe), Munich, Germany (2014)
  • R. Lucas, E. Vaumorin, Ph. Cuenot, Y. Li, Zh. Wang, M.‑M. Louërat, J.‑P. Chaput, F. Pêcheux, R. Iskander, M. Barnasconi, Th. Vörtler, K. Einwich : “Generation of UVM compliant Test Benches for Automotive Systems using IP-XACT with UVM-SystemC and SystemC AMS extensions”, Design and Verification Conference and Exhibition (DVCON Europe), Munich, Germany (2014)
  • Y. Li, R. Iskander, M.‑M. Louërat : “Modeling, Design and Verification Platform using SystemC AMS”, 15^th International Symposium on Quality Electronic Design, ISQED 2014, Santa Clara, CA, United States, pp. 39-46, (IEEE) (2014)
  • Y. Li, Zh. Wang, M.‑M. Louërat, F. Pêcheux, R. Iskander, Ph. Cuenot, M. Barnasconi, Th. Vörtler, K. Einwich : “Virtual Prototyping, Verification and Validation Framework for Automotive Using SystemC, SystemC-AMS and SystemC-UVM”, Embedded Real Time Software and Systems (ERTS2), Toulouse, France, pp. 1-10 (2014)
  • Y. Li, R. Iskander, F. Javid, M.‑M. Louërat : “A Design and Verification Methodology for Mixed-Signal Systems Using SystemC-AMS”, chapter in Models, Methods, and Tools for Complex Chip Design, vol. 265, Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, pp. 89-108, (Springer) (2014)
• 2012
  • Y. Li, R. Iskander, F. Javid, M.‑M. Louërat : “A Unified Platform for Design and Verification of Mixed-Signal Systems Based on SystemC-AMS”, Forum on specification & Design Languages, FDL 2012, Vienna, Austria, pp. 75-82 (2012)
  • Y. Li, R. Iskander, F. Javid, M.‑M. Louërat : “An Interface between System-level and Circuit-level for Design of Mixed-Signal Systems”, Colloque GDR SOC-SIP, Paris, France, pp. 1-2 (2012)