While digital CAD tools are well developed and widely available,
when it comes to analog CAD, aside from the SPICE simulator,
no robust or commercial CAD tools are available. Thus, the design
cycle for analog and mixed-signal ICs remains long and error prone,
and it persists as the bottleneck point in mixed-signal system design.
There has been no shortage of academic interest in analog CAD and
design automation, but progress has been slow albeit steady. Some
aspects are now reaching maturity, some are ready for commercialization,
while others are still in early stages of exploration and development.
The development of analog and mixed-signal hardware
description languages like VHDL-AMS and VERILOG-A/MS is
one recent evolution that promises to link analog design automation
tasks into a coherent framework that supports a more structured
analog design methodology—covering design conceptualization
through manufacturing—as well as linking to the digital domain.