Analog Module Placement Design Using Genetic Algorithm

This paper presents a novel genetic algorithm for analog module placement based on a generalization of the two-dimensional bin packing problem. The genetic encoding and operators assure that all problem constraints are always satisfied. Thus the potential problems of adding penalty terms to the cost function are eliminated so that the search configuration space is drastically decreased. The dedicated cost function is based on the special requirements of analog integrated circuits. A fractional factorial experiment was conducted using an orthogonal array to study the algorithm parameters. A meta-GA was applied to determine the optimal parameter values. The algorithm was tested with several local benchmark circuits. The experimental results show that the algorithm has better performance than the simulated annealing approach with satisfactory results comparable to manual placement. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of the genetic algorithm in the analog module placement problem. The algorithm has been successfully used in a layout synthesis tool.