An FPAA Approach to Adaptive Filter Design with Evolutionary Software-driven Reconfiguration

The ever increasing requirement of highly complex processing functions integrated in silicon attracts new paradigms for reconfigurable circuit design. The target is the development of fully adaptive mixed-signal systems on a chip, with a conclusive example found in the field of radio communications. This paper proposes an auto-adaptive filter developed for analog filtering in next-generation intelligent multi-mode wireless receivers. The adaptive system is built around a field programmable analog array. A simultaneous reconfiguration algorithm performs both the design and synthesis of the analog filter providing partial solutions along the reconfiguration process. Topology synthesis is implemented with a look up table and parametric design is performed with an evolutionary design scheme. A hierarchical self-repair mechanism then operates towards invariance vs. environmental changes and post-silicon failure. The proposed auto-adaptive filter concept is validated with extensive transistor-level simulation and specific design illustrations of GSM and WCDMA intermediate frequency analog filters. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eee.20.5.5579