A method of identifying semiconductor design candidates from a population
of semiconductor technology designs leverages specialized operators which
are smooth in the sense that the operators are capable of producing small
changes in the performance or behaviour when applied to a design to modify
it. The method includes determining a smooth operator for effecting
incremental structural change to a semiconductor technology design when
the smooth operator is applied to the semiconductor technology design and
then applying the smooth operator to at least one semiconductor technology
design in the population to determine an updated population. The
semiconductor technology designs in the updated population are evaluated
to identify a preferred semiconductor technology design candidate. If the
stopping condition is satisfied then the search terminates otherwise the
steps are repeated.
