Adaptation of the Whale Optimization Algorithm to the Optimal Sizing of Analog Integrated Circuit: Low Voltage Amplifier Performances

Metaheuristics have been successfully proposed in the past years for sizing the circuits containing large number of transistors, and it has been shown that they can replace traditional approaches. Among the most well-known metaheuristics, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) and Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) have been used successfully to optimize analog circuits. Although PSO, ACO and ABC are robust and have a good research strategy to solve problems, they suffer from their need for computation time and accuracy in the case of multi-variable problems. In this paper, we discuss the application of a new algorithm called Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA) to resolution and optimization of single-objective and multi-objective problems. The performances of WOA in the field of integrated electronic circuits (IEC) are highlighted through a more interesting and complex integrated circuit (IC) called low voltage amplifier. This algorithm is coded in MATLAB software and the obtained results are validated by Cadence Virtuoso simulations using CMOS 0.18μm technology. Comparison with other metaheuristics shows the interest of the proposed algorithm.