The products of custom chip design have become an integral part of our society. These custom chips, due to advancements in manufacturing and design, have ballooned in complexity and are commonly partitioned between analog and digital subsystems. Digital subsystems excel in computational functionality and are designed though a well-established flow including hardware specific programming languages and synthesis. Analog subsystems are put in place to interface the digital systems with the real-world operating environment and include functionality in sensing, communication, and power transfer. Early attempts at analog design automation have focused on translating digital design flows into analog design flows. Despite advancements in computer-aided-design, analog design remains a time consuming, error prone, and expert-driven domain.
Recent high-profile advancements in generative artificial intelligence have renewed efforts for analog circuit design automation. Due to the sensitivity, multi-dimensionality, and design-space trade-offs of analog circuits, no widely accepted methodology has been adopted thus far. A closed source ecosystem has also hindered collaboration and adoption.
This presentation explores real world application of present capabilities in AI and Agentic automation flows towards analog and mixed-signal circuit design. Future engineers will not only need a strong foundation of circuit knowledge but also a practical understanding and experience with software infrastructure.
Calvin Yoji Lee received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA, in 2015, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA, in 2021. Currently, he is a researcher at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA, where he is working on the advancement of methodologies for electronic design automation of mixed-signal ICs. Additionally, he is a member of technical staff at K2 Semiconductor, Los Gatos, CA, USA where he leads development of custom ASICs for medical imaging. From 2021 to 2023, he was with Skyworks Solutions, Hillsboro, OR, USA where he contributed to the development of custom SoCs for consumer wireless audio solutions and class-D audio amplifiers. He has served in executive leadership roles within IEEE Hawaii since 2025. His research has been published in numerous IEEE conferences and journals, including several publications in the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference. He is a co-recipient of the 2019 Jack Kilby Award for Outstanding Student Paper. He holds several patents for innovations in mixed-signal and RF integrated circuit design.