Automated design synthesis of CMOS operational amplifers

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1994.Includes bibliographical references (p. 159-161).by Ognen J. Nastov.M.S

Spectral methods for circuit analysis

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1999.Includes bibliographical references (p. 119-124).This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Harmonic balance (HB) methods are frequency-domain algorithms used for high accuracy computation of the periodic steady-state of circuits. Matrix-implicit Krylov-subspace techniques have made it possible for these methods to simulate large circuits more efficiently. However, the harmonic balance methods are not so efficient in computing steady-state solutions of strongly nonlinear circuits with rapid transitions. While the time-domain shooting-Newton methods can handle these problems, the low-order integration methods typically used with shooting-Newton methods are inefficient when high solution accuracy is required. We first examine possible enhancements to the standard state-of-the-art preconditioned matrix-implicit Krylovsubspace HB method. We formulate the BDF time-domain preconditioners and show that they can be quite effective for strongly nonlinear circuits, speeding up the HB runtimes by several times compared to using the frequency-domain block-diagonal preconditioner. Also, an approximate Galerkin HB formulation is derived, yielding a small improvement in accuracy over the standard pseudospectral HB formulation, and about a factor of 1.5 runtime speedup in runs reaching identical solution error. Next, we introduce and develop the Time-Mapped Harmonic Balance method (TMHB) as a fast Krylov-subspace spectral method that overcomes the inefficiency of standard harmonic balance for circuits with rapid transitions. TMHB features a non-uniform grid and a time-map function to resolve the sharp features in the signals. At the core of the TMHB method is the notion of pseudo Fourier approximations. The rapid transitions in the solution waveforms are well approximated with pseudo Fourier interpolants, whose building blocks are complex exponential basis functions with smoothly varying frequencies. The TMHB features a matrix-implicit Krylov-subspace solution approach of same complexity as the standard harmonic balance method. As the TMHB solution is computed in a pseudo domain, we give a procedure for computing the real Fourier coefficients of the solution, and we also detail the construction of the time-map function. The convergence properties of TMHB are analyzed and demonstrated on analytic waveforms. The success of TMHB is critically dependent on the selection of a non-uniform grid. Two grid selection strategies, direct and iterative, are introduced and studied. Both strategies are a priori schemes, and are designed to obey accuracy and stability requirements. Practical issues associated with their use are also addressed. Results of applying the TMHB method on several circuit examples demonstrate that the TMHB method achieves up to five orders of magnitude improvement in accuracy compared to the standard harmonic balance method. The solution error in TMHB decays exponentially faster than the standard HB method when the size of the Fourier basis increases linearly. The TMHB method is also up to six times faster than the standard harmonic balance method in reaching identical solution accuracy, and uses up to five times less computer memory. The TMHB runtime speedup factor and storage savings favorably increase for stricter accuracy requirements, making TMHB well suited for high accuracy simulations of large strongly nonlinear circuits with rapid transitions.by Ognen J. Nastov.Ph.D

Computational Prototyping Tools and Techniques

Contains reports on five research projects.Industry Consortium (Mobil, Statoil, DNV Software, Shell, OTRC, Petrobras, NorskHydro, Exxon, Chevron, SAGA, NSWC)U.S. Navy - Office of Naval ResearchAnalog DevicesDefense Advanced Research Projects Agency Contract J-FBI-95-215Cadence Design SystemsHarris SemiconductorMAFET ConsortiumMotorola SemiconductorDefense Advanced Research Projects AgencyMultiuniversity Research InitiativeSemiconductor Research CorporationIBM Corporatio

Time-Mapped Harmonic Balance

Matrix-implicit Krylov-subspace methods have made it possible to efficiently compute the periodic steady-state of large circuits using either the time-domain shooting-Newton method or the frequencydomain harmonic balance method. However, the harmonic balance methods are not so efficient at computing steady-state solutions with rapid transitions, and the low-order integration methods typically used with shooting-Newton methods are not so efficient when high accuracy is required. In this paper we describe a Time-Mapped Harmonic Balance method (TMHB), a fast Krylovsubspace spectral method that overcomes the inefficiency of standard harmonic balance in the case of rapid transitions. TMHB features a non-uniform grid to resolve the sharp features in the signals. Results on several examples demonstrate that the TMHB method achieves several orders of magnitude improvement in accuracy compared to the standard harmonic balance method. The TMHB method is also several times faster than the standard harmonic balance method in reaching identical solution accuracy

Adjoint transient sensitivity computation in piecewise linear simulation

This paper presents a general method for computing transient sensitivities using the adjoint method in event driven simulation algorithms that employ piecewise linear device models. Sensitivity information provides first order assessment of circuit variability with respect to design variables and parasitics. This information is particularly useful for noise stability analysis, timing rule generation, and circuit optimization. Techniques for incorporating adjoint transient sensitivity into ACES, a general piecewise linear simulator, are presented. Sensitivity computation includes algorithms to handle instantaneous charge redistribution due to the discontinuous conductance models of the piecewise linear elements, and the loss of simulation accuracy due to the non-monotonous responses in autonomous adjoint circuits with non-zero initial conditions. Results demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed techniques

Custom Integrated Circuits

Contains table of contents for Part III, table of contents for Section 1 and reports on ten research projects.IBM CorporationNational Science FoundationNational Science Foundation/Advanced Research Projects Agency Grant MIP 91-17724Advanced Research Projects Agency/U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Contract N00014-94-1-0985U.S. Navy Contract N00174-93-C-0035Analog Devices, Inc.Federal Bureau of Investigation Contract J-FBI-92-196Advanced Research Projects Agency/Consortium for Superconducting Electronics Contract MDA972-90-C-0021National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate FellowshipDigital Equipment CorporationSemiconductor Research Corporation Contract SRC 93-SJ-360U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Contract N00014-91-J-1698National Science Foundation/Advanced Research Projects Agency Grant MIP 91-17724Semiconductor Research Corporation Contract SRC 93-SJ-558Advanced Research Projects Agency/U.S. Army Intelligence Center Contract DABT63-94-C-0053National Science Foundation Young Investigator AwardMitsubishi Corporation Fellowship MIP 92-5837

Custom Integrated Circuits

Contains table of contents for Part III, table of contents for Section 1, and reports on twelve research projects.IBM CorporationMIT School of EngineeringNational Science Foundation Grant MIP 94-23221Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency/U.S. Army Intelligence Center Contract DABT63-94-C-0053Mitsubishi CorporationNational Science Foundation/Young Investigator Award Fellowship MIP 92-58376Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency/ U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Contract N00014-94-1-0985National Science Foundation Grant MIP 91-17724U.S. Navy - Office of Navel Research Contract N00174-93-K-0035Analog Devices CorporationFederal Bureau of Investigation Contract J-FBI-92-196Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency/Consortium for Superconducting Electronics Contract MDA 972-90-C-0021National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate FellowshipDefense Advanced Research Projects Agency Contract DABT63-94-C-0053Digital Equipment CorporationMIT Lincoln LaboratorySemiconductor Research Corporation Contract SRC 95-SJ-558U.S. Army Contract DABT63-95-C-0088Motorola Corporatio