1. Purpose of the gate
Concept approval is the first gate of the analog and mixed-signal lifecycle. It sits on the product track at the start of the AMS Specification & Architecture stage. The decision is whether the need is real and worth meeting, and whether a team should be funded to define the circuit. It does not commit to full development: that commitment comes later, once the specification is frozen and the cost of meeting it is understood.
The gate exists because analog work is expensive to start and slow to redirect. A specification exercise uses senior architects, device modelling engineers and often early foundry engagement. Starting that work for a need that is vague, already met by an existing circuit or outside the business strategy wastes scarce expertise. For a block that will sit inside a SoC, this gate is usually the SoC or product program's own concept decision; for a stand-alone analog product it is the product's concept approval.
The three criteria are that the business case has been reviewed and approved, the product requirements are documented, and the team and budget are agreed.
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