mTunes: Efficient post-silicon tuning of mixed-signal/RF integrated circuits based on Markov decision process

Uncertainty prevails in IC manufacturing and circuit operation. In particular, process variability has a huge impact on circuit performance, especially for mixed-signal/RF circuits, leading to unacceptable yields. Additionally, environmental uncertainties, such as temperature fluctuation and channel variation, further deteriorate performances in field. To combat variability, circuits are often made reconfigurable by adding tunable knobs to recover circuit performance in the post-manufacturing stage. However, as the number of knobs increases, knob tuning becomes challenging due to the huge search space. In fact, knob-tuning policies can have an observable impact on final performance and power consumption. In this paper, we propose mTunes, a method based on the Markov decision process for dynamically choosing the “right” knob tuning sub-routine from a pre-defined set achieving a balance between performance and power constraints. The proposed method has been applied to a reconfigurable RF front-end design, showing 60% improvement in yield compared to static tuning policies.