This paper proposes a methodology for optimizing and evaluating chip designs by coupling the well-known logical effort (LE) theory with heuristic algorithms. Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS)-level optimization can dramatically improve the system-level performance, particularly when the timing constraints of sequential circuits are considered. Since the industrial application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design flow starts from the behavioral model-level design, the control for the physical implementations is limited. The chip size/power/speed is mainly decided by synthesis algorithms and tools. Additionally, in the high abstract-level design, the power-delay area (PDA) is usually considered as a tradeoff or balance; however, an increase in the PDA product is possible at the transistor level. The automated approach for finding a minimum PDA has a great potential to be adopted in synthesis tools like a DC or RTL compiler.