Evaluation of analog layout automation tool and development of layout quality metrics

Analog Integrated Circuit (IC) layout design, especially for analog mixed-signal (AMS) systems, remains a complex and manual process due to the performance-critical nature of analog circuits. Despite progress, analog layout automation continues to lag behind digital IC design automation and lacks a commercially integrated solution.

This thesis evaluates Animate Preview (AP), a schematic-driven automation tool developed by Pulsic, and the development of a Quality Metric Tool (QMT) designed to assess the quality of matched device placements. AP aims to accelerate early-stage layout generation by identifying common analog topologies and generating multiple compact, constraint-aware preview layouts. In parallel, QMT provides a quantitative framework for evaluating placement quality through three key layout principles: centroid alignment, symmetry, and dispersion.

The results show that AP performs well in generating compact and design rule-compliant placements, grouping matched devices effectively and supporting user-defined constraints. However, it struggles with recognizing complex topologies and lacks aware-ness of dummy and isolation devices, requiring manual adjustments in larger circuits. QMT complements AP by offering a structured and numerical method for evaluating the quality of matched layouts, although it currently does not assess full-layout metrics such as routing complexity or parasitic effects.

Together, this work highlights both the potential and current limitations of schematic-driven analog layout automation tool and introduces a foundation for further development in layout quality assessment.