An Application of Multiobjective Optimization in Electronic Circuit Design

Optimization is undoubtedly playing an ever more important role in CAD of electronic circuits. As the complexity of practical designs grows, so does the number of objectives to be optimized simultaneously. Even though a large number of multiobjective optimization methods have been developed in other disciplines like Operations Research, they are still generally unknown to electrical engineers and creators of CAD tools. The present paper provides a brief introduction to multiobjective optimization as such, explains two of the most frequently used methods, and discusses their advantages as well as their drawbacks. Several application guidelines and recommendations based on the authors’ experience are proposed. The use of both methods is demonstrated on a practical example of a video amplifier design followed by evaluation and discussion of the obtained results. Key-Words: Multiobjective optimization, Pareto optimality, goal attainment.