{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,15]],"date-time":"2026-01-15T14:32:54Z","timestamp":1768487574799,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,24]],"date-time":"2022-12-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1671840000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.acm.org\/publications\/policies\/copyright_policy#Background"}],"funder":[{"name":"Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), U.S. Department of Energy","award":["DE-AR0001210"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DE-AR0001210"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000001","name":"U.S. National Science Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["CNS-1948457"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["CNS-1948457"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000001","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["dl.acm.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["ACM Trans. Des. Autom. Electron. Syst."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,31]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>The tidal waves of modern electronic\/electrical devices have led to increasing demands for ubiquitous application-specific power converters. A conventional manual design procedure of such power converters is computation- and labor-intensive, which involves selecting and connecting component devices, tuning component-wise parameters and control schemes, and iteratively evaluating and optimizing the design. To automate and speed up this design process, we propose an automatic framework that designs custom power converters from design specifications using Monte Carlo Tree Search. Specifically, the framework embraces the upper-confidence-bound-tree (UCT), a variant of Monte Carlo Tree Search, to automate topology space exploration with circuit design specification-encoded reward signals. Moreover, our UCT-based approach can exploit small offline data via the specially designed default policy and can run in parallel to accelerate topology space exploration. Further, it utilizes a hybrid circuit evaluation strategy to substantially reduce design evaluation costs. Empirically, we demonstrated that our framework could generate energy-efficient circuit topologies for various target voltage conversion ratios. Compared to existing automatic topology optimization strategies, the proposed method is much more computationally efficient\u2014the sequential version can generate topologies with the same quality while being up to 67% faster. The parallelization schemes can further achieve high speedups compared to the sequential version.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1145\/3549538","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,7,21]],"date-time":"2022-07-21T12:16:05Z","timestamp":1658405765000},"page":"1-33","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Power Converter Circuit Design Automation Using Parallel Monte Carlo Tree Search"],"prefix":"10.1145","volume":"28","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3496-6076","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Shaoze","family":"Fan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5046-6579","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Shun","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Cambridge, MA, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4768-7797","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jianbo","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5323-1051","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ningyuan","family":"Cao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1929-0971","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xiaoxiao","family":"Guo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Meta Platforms Inc., Menlo Park, CA, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6865-7290","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jing","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0579-2268","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xin","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"320","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_1_2_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3084685"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_3_2","first-page":"48","volume-title":"Proceedings of the International Conference on Computers and Games","author":"Bourki Amine","year":"2010","unstructured":"Amine Bourki, Guillaume Chaslot, Matthieu Coulm, Vincent Danjean, Hassen Doghmen, Jean-Baptiste Hoock, Thomas H\u00e9rault, Arpad Rimmel, Fabien Teytaud, Olivier Teytaud, et\u00a0al. 2010. Scalability and parallelization of Monte-Carlo tree search. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Computers and Games. Springer, 48-58."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_4_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TCIAIG.2012.2186810"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_5_2","volume-title":"Proceedings of the Computer Games Workshop","author":"Cazenave Tristan","year":"2007","unstructured":"Tristan Cazenave and Nicolas Jouandeau. 2007. On the parallelization of UCT. In Proceedings of the Computer Games Workshop."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_6_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/CICC.2018.8357061"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_7_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-540-87608-3_6"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_8_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3400302.3415660"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_9_2","first-page":"72","volume-title":"Proceedings of the International Conference on Computers and Games","author":"Coulom R\u00e9mi","year":"2006","unstructured":"R\u00e9mi Coulom. 2006. Efficient selectivity and backup operators in Monte Carlo tree search. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Computers and Games. Springer, 72-83."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_10_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/ICCAD51958.2021.9643552"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_11_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/1273496.1273531"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_12_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/ICCAD.2001.968645"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_13_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-23397-5_36"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_14_2","article-title":"Deep learning for real-time Atari game play using offline Monte Carlo tree search planning","volume":"27","author":"Guo Xiaoxiao","year":"2014","unstructured":"Xiaoxiao Guo, Satinder Singh, Honglak Lee, Richard L. Lewis, and Xiaoshi Wang. 2014. Deep learning for real-time Atari game play using offline Monte Carlo tree search planning. Adv. Neural Info. Process. Syst. 27 (2014).","journal-title":"Adv. Neural Info. Process. Syst."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_15_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/ICCAD45719.2019.8942062"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_16_2","first-page":"1","volume-title":"Proceedings of the 56th ACM\/IEEE Design Automation Conference (DAC\u201919)","author":"Hakhamaneshi K.","year":"2019","unstructured":"K. Hakhamaneshi, N. Werblun, P. Abbeel, and V. Stojanovi\u0107. 2019. Late breaking results: Analog circuit generator based on deep neural network enhanced combinatorial optimization. In Proceedings of the 56th ACM\/IEEE Design Automation Conference (DAC\u201919). 1-2."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_17_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5555\/3437539.3437541"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_18_2","first-page":"863","volume-title":"Proceedings of the IEEE\/ACM International Conference on Computer Aided Design (ICCAD\u201904).","author":"Kim Jintae","year":"2004","unstructured":"Jintae Kim, Jaeseo Lee, Lieven Vandenberghe, and Chih-Kong Ken Yang. 2004. Techniques for improving the accuracy of geometric-programming based analog circuit design optimization. In Proceedings of the IEEE\/ACM International Conference on Computer Aided Design (ICCAD\u201904). IEEE, 863-870."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_19_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/11871842_29"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_20_2","article-title":"Parallelization of Monte Carlo tree search in continuous domains","author":"Kurzer Karl","year":"2020","unstructured":"Karl Kurzer, Christoph H\u00f6rtnagl, and J. Marius Z\u00f6llner. 2020. Parallelization of Monte Carlo tree search in continuous domains. Retrieved from https:\/\/arXiv:2003.13741.","journal-title":"Retrieved from https:\/\/arXiv:2003.13741"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_21_2","volume-title":"Proceedings of the NeurIPS Workshop: Machine Learning for Engineering Modeling, Simulation, and Design","author":"Lee Wook","year":"2020","unstructured":"Wook Lee and Frans A. Oliehoek. 2020. Analog circuit design with Dyna-style reinforcement learning. In Proceedings of the NeurIPS Workshop: Machine Learning for Engineering Modeling, Simulation, and Design."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_22_2","unstructured":"Anji Liu Jianshu Chen Mingze Yu Yu Zhai Xuewen Zhou and Ji Liu. 2020. Watch the unobserved: A simple approach to parallelizing Monte Carlo tree search. In International Conference on Learning Representations . https:\/\/openreview.net\/forum?id=BJlQtJSKDB."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_23_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/ASP-DAC47756.2020.9045109"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_24_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/DAC18072.2020.9218582"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_25_2","first-page":"3306","volume-title":"Proceedings of the International Conference on Machine Learning","author":"Lyu Wenlong","year":"2018","unstructured":"Wenlong Lyu, Fan Yang, Changhao Yan, Dian Zhou, and Xuan Zeng. 2018. Batch Bayesian optimization via multi-objective acquisition ensemble for automated analog circuit design. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Machine Learning. PMLR, 3306-3314."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_26_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TEVC.2010.2093581"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_27_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TEVC.2010.2093581"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_28_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/Trustcom.2015.615"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_29_2","unstructured":"Paolo Nenzi and Holger Vogt. 2011. Ngspice Users Manual Version 23."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_30_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/ESSCIRC.2018.8494310"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_31_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/PESC.1980.7089440"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_32_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.engappai.2019.01.012"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_33_2","first-page":"36","volume-title":"Proceedings of the International Conference on Computers and Games","author":"Segal Richard B.","year":"2010","unstructured":"Richard B. Segal. 2010. On the scalability of parallel UCT. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Computers and Games. Springer, 36-47."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_34_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.23919\/DATE48585.2020.9116200"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_35_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/nature16961"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_36_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TCAD.2012.2199115"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_37_2","unstructured":"Tesla. 2021. Tesla AI Day. Retrieved from https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=j0z4FweCy4M."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_38_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/DAC18072.2020.9218757"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_39_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/2593069.2593131"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_40_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TPEL.2018.2881454"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_41_2","unstructured":"Kai-En Yang Chia-Yu Tsai Hung-Hao Shen Chen-Feng Chiang Feng-Ming Tsai Chung-An Wang Yiju Ting Chia-Shun Yeh and Chin-Tang Lai. 2020. Fast design space adaptation with deep reinforcement learning for analog circuit sizing. Retrieved from https:\/\/arXiv:2009.13772."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_42_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/785411.785414"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_43_2","volume-title":"Proceedings of the International Symposium on Combinatorial Search","author":"Yoshizoe Kazuki","year":"2011","unstructured":"Kazuki Yoshizoe, Akihiro Kishimoto, Tomoyuki Kaneko, Haruhiro Yoshimoto, and Yutaka Ishikawa. 2011. Scalable distributed Monte Carlo tree search. In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Combinatorial Search."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_44_2","first-page":"7364","volume-title":"Proceedings of the International Conference on Machine Learning","author":"Zhang Guo","year":"2019","unstructured":"Guo Zhang, Hao He, and Dina Katabi. 2019. Circuit-GNN: Graph neural networks for distributed circuit design. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Machine Learning. PMLR, 7364-7373."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_45_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5555\/3437539.3437540"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_46_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TPEL.2020.2980240"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_47_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TPEL.2020.3024914"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_48_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1109\/TCAD.2020.2977605"},{"issue":"2","key":"e_1_3_1_49_2","first-page":"1","article-title":"Revisiting routability-driven placement for analog and mixed-signal circuits","volume":"23","author":"Zhou Hongxia","year":"2017","unstructured":"Hongxia Zhou, Chiu-Wing Sham, and Hailong Yao. 2017. Revisiting routability-driven placement for analog and mixed-signal circuits. ACM Trans. Design Autom. Electr. Syst. 23, 2 (2017), 1-17.","journal-title":"ACM Trans. Design Autom. Electr. Syst."},{"key":"e_1_3_1_50_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.23919\/DATE48585.2020.9116413"}],"container-title":["ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/3549538","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1145\/3549538","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,17]],"date-time":"2025-06-17T19:00:11Z","timestamp":1750186811000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/3549538"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,24]]},"references-count":49,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,31]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1145\/3549538"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/3549538","relation":{},"ISSN":["1084-4309","1557-7309"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1084-4309","type":"print"},{"value":"1557-7309","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,24]]},"assertion":[{"value":"2022-02-16","order":0,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2022-06-12","order":1,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2022-12-24","order":2,"name":"published","label":"Published","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}}]}}