Supervision : Alain GREINER

Co-supervision : ABOUSHADY Hassan

Unified Multi-Level Design Environment for Mixed Signal Systems

Nowadays, System-on-Chips containing digital, analog and RF blocks are very common and are present in almost all electronic devices. A system-level model containing both the analog and digital parts is very important to determine the circuit specifications and to validate the desired system performance. Tools available to model such systems are currently lacking: Matlab, a widely used high-level simulator is not compatible with the integrated circuit design flow. VHDL-AMS, a language for analog mixed-signal circuit description is very time-consuming for large systems. Recently, an AMS extension of SystemC, called SystemC AMS, has filled this gap of Mixed Signal modeling in a system level. At the circuit level, the conventional analog design methodologies have been mainly based on the analog designer approximated calculations and computer-aided simulations for tuning. The design time of analog and RF blocks is very dependent on the designer's experience. When the CMOS process or the specifications are changed a complete redesign is necessary. Moreover, it is very difficult to optimize the overall design of a complex mixed-signal circuit because the design and simulation environments used for the digital blocks are very different from those used for the analog and RF blocks. The following points summarize the contributions realized in this work:

• The first implementation of a fairly complex Mixed Signal model in SystemC-AMS: a Wireless Sensor Network node.
• Refined models for a generic and configurable approach of system-level modeling.
• An accurate linear and nonlinear circuit performance evaluation tool for system-level refined models back-annotation and circuit-level optimized design.
• An optimized circuit design methodology based on an accurate sizing tool and the circuit performance evaluation tool.
• A unified Mixed Signal design environment with a very strong interaction between system-level simulation and optimized circuit-level design.

2007-2012 Publications

• 2012
  • M. Vasilevski : “Environnement de conception multi-niveaux unifié appliqué aux systèmes mixtes”, thesis, phd defence 10/04/2012, supervision Greiner, Alain, co-supervision : Aboushady, Hassan (2012)
• 2010
  • A. Lévêque, F. Pêcheux, M.‑M. Louërat, H. Aboushady, M. Vasilevski : “SystemC-AMS Models for Low-Power Heterogeneous Designs: Application to a WSN for the Detection of Seismic Perturbations”, ARCS '10 - 23^th International Conference on Architecture of Computing Systems, Hannover, Germany, pp. 1-6 (2010)
  • A. Massouri, A. Lévêque, L. Clavier, M. Vasilevski, A. Kaiser, M.‑M. Louërat : “Baseband Fading Channel Simulator for Inter-Vehicle Communication using SystemC-AMS”, 2010 IEEE International Behavioral Modeling and Simulation Conference (BMAS 2010), San Jose, CA, United States, pp. 36-41 (2010)
  • D. Haghighitalab, M. Vasilevski, H. Aboushady : “LNA automatic synthesis and characterization for accurate RF system-level simulation”, IEEE International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS 2010), Seattle, WA, United States, pp. 938-941, (IEEE) (2010)
• 2009
  • M. Vasilevski, H. Aboushady, M.‑M. Louërat : “Automatic model refinement of GmC integrators for high-level simulation of continuous-time Sigma-Delta modulators”, ISCAS'09 - IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, Taipei, Taiwan, Province of China, pp. 2769-2772, (IEEE) (2009)
• 2008
  • M. Vasilevski, N. Beilleau, H. Aboushady, F. Pêcheux : “Efficient and refined modeling of wireless sensor network nodes using SystemC-AMS”, PRIME 2008 - IEEE Ph.D. Research in Microelectronics and Electronics, Istanbul, Turkey, pp. 81-84, (IEEE) (2008)
  • M. Vasilevski, F. Pêcheux, N. Beilleau, H. Aboushady, K. Einwich : “Modeling and Refining Heterogeneous Systems With SystemC-AMS: Application to WSN”, DATE'08 - IEEE Design, Automation and Test in Europe, Munich, Germany, pp. 134-139, (IEEE) (2008)
• 2007
  • M. Vasilevski, H. Aboushady, F. Pêcheux, L. De Lamarre : “Modeling Wireless Sensor Network nodes using SystemC-AMS”, ICM'07 - IEEE Internatonal Conference on Microelectronics, Le Caire, Egypt, pp. 53-56, (IEEE) (2007)
  • M. Vasilevski, F. Pêcheux, H. Aboushady, L. De Lamarre : “Modeling heterogeneous systems using SystemC-AMS case study: A Wireless Sensor Network Node”, Behavioral Modeling and Simulation Workshop, 2007. BMAS 2007. IEEE International, San Jose, CA, United States, pp. 11-16, (IEEE) (2007)