INTRINSIC EVOLUTION OF ANALOG ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS USING A CMOS FPTA CHIP
Karlheinz Meier, Johannes Schemmel · 2003
This paper surveys the research on intrinsic evolution of analog electronic circuits done at the University of Heidelberg. The aims of the project are discussed with reference to the related fields of evolvable hardware and analog design automation. A Field Programmable Transistor Array (FPTA) is used as the substrate for the artificial evolution process. It consists of 16 16 transistor cells fabricated in a 0:6 µm CMOS process. Static as well as dynamic properties of the programmable transistor array are estimated by characterization measure- ments of the chip. The chip is embedded in an evolution system consisting of a PC running the evolutionary algorithm and a PCI card that connects the PC to the FPTA and provides the con- version between digital and analog signals. As case studies the quasi dc behavior of different logic gates as well as a Gaussian output characteristic are evolved.