Abstract

Analog and mixed signal (AMS) designs are integrated circuits required at the interfaces of a system-on-chip or embedded system with the physical environment. The verification of AMS designs is concerned with the assurance of correct functionality, in addition to checking robustness with respect to different types of inaccuracies like parameter tolerances, nonlinearities, etc. In this talk, I will review recent research on the application of formal methods to the verification of AMS designs and present some successful approaches based on techniques such as Model Checking, Constraint based verification, Run-time verification, Assertion based verification, and Automated Theorem Proving. These approaches handle continuous as well as discrete-time AMS designs with both linear and non-linear behaviors. To illustrate the effectiveness of above techniques, I will use as case studies several examples of analog and mixed signal systems, like oscillator circuits, switched capacitor based designs, Delta-Sigma modulators, PLLs, etc.

BIO: Sofiene Tahar is Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He received his PhD in Computer Science in 1994 from the University of Karlsruhe and his Diploma in Computer Engineering in 1990 from the University of Darmstadt. Prof. Tahar has made contributions and published papers in the areas of formal hardware verification, microprocessor and system-on-chip verification, analog and mixed signal circuits verification, VLSI design automation, and formal probabilistic, statistical and reliability analysis of systems. Prof. Tahar is founder and director of the Hardware Verification Group (http://hvg.ece.concordia.ca).