用智能引导搜索,让模拟电路设计更准更快。
Can an Actor-Critic Optimization Framework Improve Analog Design?
- 分角色决策:演员提方向,批评家判对错并调向。
- 平均提升38.9%性能指标,最高达70.5%改善。
- 适合需要可解释优化的芯片设计团队。
模拟电路设计常因微小参数调整需昂贵仿真而变慢,优质解仅占巨大搜索空间中极小区域。现有优化器虽减轻负担,但缺乏设计师判断下一搜索位置的能力。本文提出演员-批评家优化框架(ACOF)用于模拟电路尺寸优化,将这种判断力引入流程。不同于纯黑箱搜索,ACOF分离提案与评估角色:演员提出有潜力的设计区域,批评家评估其合法性并引导搜索。该结构兼容标准仿真流程,使搜索更主动、稳定且可解释。在测试电路中,ACOF相较最强基线平均提升38.9%的前10名指标(FoM),平均降低24.7%遗憾值,单个电路最高实现70.5%的FoM提升和42.2%更低遗憾值。通过结合迭代推理与仿真驱动搜索,该框架为复杂设计空间中的自动化模拟电路设计提供更透明路径。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Analog design often slows down because even small changes to device sizes or biases require expensive simulation cycles, and high-quality solutions typically occupy only a narrow part of a very large search space. While existing optimizers reduce some of this burden, they largely operate without the kind of judgment designers use when deciding where to search next. This paper presents an actor-critic optimization framework (ACOF) for analog sizing that brings that form of guidance into the loop. Rather than treating optimization as a purely black-box search problem, ACOF separates the roles of proposal and evaluation: an actor suggests promising regions of the design space, while a critic reviews those choices, enforces design legality, and redirects the search when progress is hampered. This structure preserves compatibility with standard simulator-based flows while making the search process more deliberate, stable, and interpretable. Across our test circuits, ACOF improves the top-10 figure of merit by an average of 38.9% over the strongest competing baseline and reduces regret by an average of 24.7%, with peak gains of 70.5% in FoM and 42.2% lower regret on individual circuits. By combining iterative reasoning with simulation-driven search, the framework offers a more transparent path toward automated analog sizing across challenging design spaces.
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