Automated nonlinear Macromodelling of output buffers for high-speed digital applications

We present applications of a recently developed automated nonlin-ear macromodelling approach to the important problem of macro-modelling high-speed output buffers/drivers. Good nonlinear macro-models of such drivers are essential for fast signal-integrity and timing analysis in high-speed digital design. Unlike traditional black-box modelling techniques, our approach extracts nonlinear macromodels of digital drivers automatically from SPICE-level de-scriptions. Thus it can naturally capture transistor-level nonlinear-ities in the macromodels, resulting in far more accurate signal in-tegrity analysis, while retaining significant speedups. We demon-strate the technique by automatically extracting macromodels for two typical digital drivers. Using the macromodel, we obtain about 8 × speedup in average with excellent accuracy in capturing differ-ent loading effects, crosstalk, simultaneous switching noise (SSN), etc.

Stabilizing schemes for piecewise-linear reduced order models via projection and weighting functions

Abstract—In this paper we present several results concerning the stabilization of piecewise-linear reduced order models. We include proofs of internal and external stability for models whose system matrices possess special structures. We then introduce a new projection scheme, and a new set of weighting functions which allow us to extend some of these results to piecewise-linear systems comprised of arbitrary matrices, at least one of which is Hurwitz. Included are an algorithm for creating switching piecewise-linear reduced models comprised of globally exponentially stable systems, and stable simulation results for a system which produces unstable results when using the standard TPWL method. I

Scalable trajectory methods for on-demand analog macromodel extraction.

ABSTRACT Trajectory methods sample the state trajectory of a circuit as it simulates in the time domain, and build macromodels by reducing and interpolating among the linearizations created at a suitably spaced subset of the time points visited during training simulations. Unfortunately, moving from simple to industrial circuits requires more extensive training, which creates models too large to interpolate efficiently. To make trajectory methods practical, we describe a scalable interpolation architecture, and the first implementation of a complete trajectory "infrastructure" inside a full SPICE engine. The approach supports arbitrarily large training runs, automatically prunes redundant trajectory samples, supports limited hierarchy, enables incremental macromodel updates, and gives 3-10X speedups for larger circuits

Parameterized model order reduction for nonlinear dynamical systems

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-70).The presence of several nonlinear analog circuits and Micro-Electro-Mechanical (MEM) components in modern mixed signal System-on-Chips (SoC) makes the fully automatic synthesis and optimization of such systems an extremely challenging task. The research presented in this thesis concerns the development of techniques for generating Parameterized Reduced Order Models (PROMs) of nonlinear dynamical systems. Such reduced order models could serve as a first step towards the automatic and accurate characterization of geometrically complex components and subcircuits, eventually enabling their synthesis and optimization. This work combines elements from a non-parameterized trajectory piecewise linear method for nonlinear systems with a moment matching paramneterized technique for linear systems. Exploiting these two methods one can create four different algorithms or generating PROMs of nonlinear systems. The algorithms were tested on three different systems: a MEM switch and two nonlinear analog circuits. All three examples contain distributed strong nonlinearities and possess dependence on several geometric parameters.(cont.) Using the proposed algorithms, the local and global parameter-space accuracy of the reduced order models can be adjusted as desired. Models call be created which are extremely accurate over a narrow range of parameter values. as well as models which are less accurate locally but still provide adequate accuracy over a much wider range of parameter values.by Bradley N. Bond.S.M

Convex optimization methods for model reduction

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 153-161).Model reduction and convex optimization are prevalent in science and engineering applications. In this thesis, convex optimization solution techniques to three different model reduction problems are studied.Parameterized reduced order modeling is important for rapid design and optimization of systems containing parameter dependent reducible sub-circuits such as interconnects and RF inductors. The first part of the thesis presents a quasi-convex optimization approach to solve the parameterized model order reduction problem for linear time-invariant systems. Formulation of the model reduction problem as a quasi-convex program allows the flexibility to enforce constraints such as stability and passivity in both non-parameterized and parameterized cases. Numerical results including the parameterized reduced modeling of a large RF inductor are given to demonstrate the practical value of the proposed algorithm.A majority of nonlinear model reduction techniques can be regarded as a two step procedure as follows. First the state dimension is reduced through a projection, and then the vector field of the reduced state is approximated for improved computation efficiency. Neither of the above steps has been thoroughly studied. The second part of this thesis presents a solution to a particular problem in the second step above, namely, finding an upper bound of the system input/output error due to nonlinear vector field approximation. The system error upper bounding problem is formulated as an L2 gain upper bounding problem of some feedback interconnection, to which the small gain theorem can be applied. A numerical procedure based on integral quadratic constraint analysis and a theoretical statement based on L2 gain analysis are given to provide the solution to the error bounding problem. The numerical procedure is applied to analyze the vector field approximation quality of a transmission line with diodes.(Cont) The application of Volterra series to the reduced modeling of nonlinear systems is hampered by the rapidly increasing computation cost with respect to the degrees of the polynomials used. On the other hand, while it is less general than the Volterra series model, the Wiener-Hammerstein model has been shown to be useful for accurate and compact modeling of certain nonlinear sub-circuits such as power amplifiers. The third part of the thesis presents a convex optimization solution technique to the reduction/identification of the Wiener-Hammerstein system. The identification problem is formulated as a non-convex quadratic program, which is solved by a semidefinite programming relaxation technique. It is demonstrated in the thesis that the formulation is robust with respect to noisy measurement, and the relaxation technique is oftentimes sufficient to provide good solutions. Simple examples are provided to demonstrate the use of the proposed identification algorithm.by Kin Cheong Sou.Ph.D

Engineering Education and Research Using MATLAB

MATLAB is a software package used primarily in the field of engineering for signal processing, numerical data analysis, modeling, programming, simulation, and computer graphic visualization. In the last few years, it has become widely accepted as an efficient tool, and, therefore, its use has significantly increased in scientific communities and academic institutions. This book consists of 20 chapters presenting research works using MATLAB tools. Chapters include techniques for programming and developing Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs), dynamic systems, electric machines, signal and image processing, power electronics, mixed signal circuits, genetic programming, digital watermarking, control systems, time-series regression modeling, and artificial neural networks