TACS-RF: Tool-driven Agentic Circuit Synthesis of RF and mmWave Modules
Summary
- Researchers introduced TACS-RF, a tool-driven agentic framework for synthesizing RF and mmWave circuits using LLM coding agents.
- The framework uses Claude Opus 4.8 to directly control electronic design automation tools like Cadence Virtuoso, Spectre, Calibre, EMX, and Ansys HFSS.
- The agent semi-autonomously designed a 240-251 GHz sub-THz transmitter in a 90 nm SiGe BiCMOS process, including sub-blocks, antennas, and matching networks.
- The synthesized transmitter delivers +5.1 to +6.3 dBm across an 11 GHz tuning range, with phase noise of -80 to -88 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset while consuming 361 mW.
Why it matters
This research demonstrates the viability of LLM-driven agents in executing complex hardware design workflows with standard EDA tools, marking a step toward automated text-to-ASIC development for high-frequency RF and mmWave modules.