ArXiv

On 2,000 test cases across multiple circuit topologies, ORACLE reduces runtime by…

Authors
Osei Brempong, Mohammed Ayman Habib, Vivan Poddar...
Categories
eess.SY, cs.AI
arXiv
https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.04999v1
PDF
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2608.04999v1

Brief

ORACLE is an open-source RL framework for multi-objective analog circuit design that replaces scalar rewards with vector-valued learning and preference-aware conditioning, using a preference vector plus normalized-weight and cosine-aligned guidance. An LLM-guided action filter prunes poor actions. Across multiple topologies and 2,000 test cases it cuts runtime 20.4×–104.4×, meets 99.9% of targets, and improves figure-of-merit 5.1×–318.6×.

Why it matters

On 2,000 test cases across multiple circuit topologies, ORACLE reduces runtime by 20.4×–104.4×, meets 99.9% of the 2,000 target specifications, and achieves 5.1×–318.6× better figure-of-merit versus state-of-the-art methods.

Key details

  • ORACLE is an open-source, multi-objective RL optimizer that replaces scalar rewards with vector-valued learning and preference-aware conditioning (a preference vector). It introduces normalized-weight and cosine-aligned guidance and an LLM-guided action filter so a single trained model generates designs across diverse trade-offs without retraining.
Source evidence

Abstract

Analog circuit design automation using reinforcement learning (RL) has emerged as a promising approach for reducing manual effort. However, many existing RL-based methods focus on single-objective optimization. Even methods designed for multi-objective (MO) problems often reduce multiple design specifications to a single scalar reward. This simplification limits the ability to capture the true Pareto trade-off among competing objectives and often leads to suboptimal designs. Moreover, requiring the model to be retrained from scratch whenever the desired MO specifications change remains a key limitation. To address these challenges, we present ORACLE, an open-source RL-based framework for MO analog circuit design optimization that replaces scalar reward optimization with vector-valued learning and preference-aware conditioning. ORACLE represents a true MO analog circuit design optimizer that uses a preference vector to specify the relative weights of multiple objectives, enabling a single trained model to generate designs across diverse trade-off settings without retraining. We further propose two preference-guidance strategies, namely normalized-weight guidance and cosine-aligned guidance, to improve convergence. In addition, we incorporate a large language model (LLM)-guided action selection mechanism to filter actions that are likely to lead to suboptimal designs or increased runtime. Our results show that, on multiple circuit topologies with 2,000 test cases, ORACLE reduces runtime by 20.4x - 104.4x compared to state-of-the-art approaches. It also meets 99.9% of the 2,000 target specifications, and achieves 5.1x - 318.6x better figure of merit in the resulting output specs.