Creating a Robust Design requires that the operating conditions of each component of the design are carefully measured and compared with its Safe Operating, a task commonly referred to as stress analysis. In this paper we analyze the relationship between the component stress and the Safe Operating Area. We summarize the requirements of describing the Safe Operating Areas and propose how these requirements can be used to model the concept with two hardware description languages: MAST® and VHDL-AMS. A circuit example is given.

A description is given of NETOPT, an interactive program for multiobjective design of linear networks with emphasis on RC active filters. The program section consists of four parts: the analysis program, an optimizer specially designed for network applications, an interface which allows multiobjective minimization, and a part with miscellaneous support functions. After noting the need to control group delay, a theory is developed for efficient calculation of group delay and its derivatives with respect to circuit elements along with a theory of design centering for filters. The optimization interface is then described in detail and three design examples that used the program are provided.>

A nonlinear constrained optimizer, WATOPT, targeted towards circuit applications is described. It utilizes a specially tailored quadratic program which reduces storage requirements and improves speed of computations. Three advanced designs in the frequency domain show application.