High-level design of analogue circuitry using an analogue hardware description language

A number of Analogue Hardware Description Languages (AHDL's) are now available, however experienced analogue designers appear to be apprehensive about their commercial exploitation as a design tool. This paper introduces the Design Assistant (DA), a high-level top down analogue design methodology that utilises an AHDL, SpectreHDL. Secondly the paper explores the design abstraction levels in the digital domain presenting suitable analogue counterparts. Furthermore, traditional high-level analogue design is compared with the DA behavioural-level, specifically comparing mathematical results with those generated from an AHDL. Finally the design of an IF transceiver is used to demonstrate the use of AHDL modelling provides benefits over traditional mathematical techniques. More specifically AHDL modelling provides greater detail during the simulation of the transceiver design and is also suited to system-level modelling.