Automated design methodology for IC sizing in wide tuning range multi-mode VCOs

To address the great labour challenge arising from sizing a wide tuning range (TR) multi-mode voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) manually, an electronic design automation methodology is proposed in this paper, which can optimize multiple circuit dimensions and design objectives of the wide TR multi-mode VCO simultaneously, achieving outstanding performance. NSGA-II algorithm substantially is extended and customized with many wide TR multi-mode VCO design considerations to develop the VCO centred variant, i.e. FNSGA-II algorithm. Using the 55 nm CMOS process, optimizations were performed on various topologies (dual-mode, triple-mode, and quad-mode) of wide TR multi-mode VCOs, demonstrating the algorithm's versatility and efficiency. Then, among many non-dominated solutions, a rule-based selection method to choose robust and practical solutions is proposed. Compared to other IC optimization algorithms, the proposed algorithm significantly enhances convergence efficiency and the diversity of superior solutions. © 2025 The Author(s). IET Power Electronics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Institution of Engineering and Technology.