Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for simulating a microelectronic circuit

US5313398A · kind A · utility

75Cited by
5References
24Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJul 23, 1992
Grant dateMay 17, 1994
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 23, 2012

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F30/367
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and apparatus for simulating a microelectronic circuit includes the steps of storing of a microelectronic circuit or system representation in a computer system and then dividing the circuit or system into portions containing nonlinear elements and linear partitions. The linear partitions are then independently solved for by modelling each linear partition using Asymptotic Waveform Evaluation (AWE) to form multiport admittance macromodels. These macromodels provide admittance and current stencils, which may be functions of time, to a global MNA matrix used by SPICE at each time point to simulate the operation of the entire microelectronic circuit. A linearized transient representation for the nonlinear elements is provided as SPICE admittance and current stencils using conventional techniques. By using AWE techniques to solve the linear partitions separately, significant savings in computation time and improved computational storage efficiency can be achieved.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.