Symbolic analysis of analog circuits with hard nonlinearity

A new methodology is presented to solve a strongly nonlinear circuit, characterized by Piece-Wise Linear (PWL) functions, symbolically and explicitly in terms of its circuit parameters and is amenable to computer implementation. The method is based on a modified nodal formulation of piecewise linear circuit equations as a mixed Linear Complementarity Problem (MLCP). The technique of determinant-decision diagrams is applied to implement the symbolic transformation of the MLCP to the standard LCP. Complementarity-decision diagrams are used to represent the resulting LCP. Examples are presented that demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method. Categories and Subject Descriptors T5.3 Analog and mixed-signal design tools and RF General Terms Algorithms Keywords Symbolic Analysis, Circuit Nonlinearity, PWL

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: DAC
• Authors: Alicia Manthe, Zhao Li, C.-J. Richard Shi
• Keywords: Circuit Parameters, Computer Architecture, DAC 2003, Linear Circuit Equations, Mixed Linear Complementarity Problem