## Interval Methods for Analog Circuits

### Interval Methods for Analog Circuits

• Reliable methods for the analysis of tolerance-affected analog circuits are of great importance in nowadays microelectronics. It is impossible to produce circuits with exactly those parameter specifications proposed in the design process. Such component tolerances will always lead to small variations of a circuit’s properties, which may result in unexpected behaviour. If lower and upper bounds to parameter variations can be read off the manufacturing process, interval arithmetic naturally enters the circuit analysis area. This paper focuses on the frequency-response analysis of linear analog circuits, typically consisting of current and voltage sources as well as resistors, capacitances, inductances, and several variants of controlled sources. These kind of circuits are still widely used in analog circuit design as equivalent circuit diagrams for representing in certain application tasks Interval methods have been applied to analog circuits before. But yet this was restricted to circuit equations only, with no interdependencies between the matrix elements. But there also exist formulations of analog circuit equations containing dependent terms. Hence, for an efficient application of interval methods, it is crucial to regard possible dependencies in circuit equations. Part and parcel of this strategy is the handling of fill-in patterns for those parameters related to uncertain components. These patterns are used in linear circuit analysis for efficient equation setup. Such systems can efficiently be solved by successive application of the Sherman-Morrison formula. The approach can also be extended to complex-valued systems from frequency domain analysis of more general linear circuits. Complex values result here from a Laplace transform of frequency-dependent components like capacitances and inductances. In order to apply interval techniques, a real representation of the linear system of equations can be used for separate treatment of real and imaginary part of the variables. In this representation each parameter corresponds to the superposition of two fill-in patterns. Crude bounds – obtained by treating both patterns independently – can be improved by consideration of the correlations to tighter enclosures of the solution. The techniques described above have been implemented as an extension to the toolbox Analog Insydes, an add-on package to the computer algebra system Mathematica for modeling, analysis, and design of analog circuits.
• Reliable methods for the analysis of tolerance-affected analog circuits are of great importance in nowadays microelectronics. It is impossible to produce circuits with exactly those parameter specifications proposed in the design process. Such component tolerances will always lead to small variations of a circuit’s properties, which may result in unexpected behaviour. If lower and upper bounds to parameter variations can be read off the manufacturing process, interval arithmetic naturally enters the circuit analysis area. This paper focuses on the frequency-response analysis of linear analog circuits, typically consisting of current and voltage sources as well as resistors, capacitances, inductances, and several variants of controlled sources. These kind of circuits are still widely used in analog circuit design as equivalent circuit diagrams for representing in certain application tasks Interval methods have been applied to analog circuits before. But yet this was restricted to circuit equations only, with no interdependencies between the matrix elements. But there also exist formulations of analog circuit equations containing dependent terms. Hence, for an efficient application of interval methods, it is crucial to regard possible dependencies in circuit equations. Part and parcel of this strategy is the handling of fill-in patterns for those parameters related to uncertain components. These patterns are used in linear circuit analysis for efficient equation setup. Such systems can efficiently be solved by successive application of the Sherman-Morrison formula. The approach can also be extended to complex-valued systems from frequency domain analysis of more general linear circuits. Complex values result here from a Laplace transform of frequency-dependent components like capacitances and inductances. In order to apply interval techniques, a real representation of the linear system of equations can be used for separate treatment of real and imaginary part of the variables. In this representation each parameter corresponds to the superposition of two fill-in patterns. Crude bounds – obtained by treating both patterns independently – can be improved by consideration of the correlations to tighter enclosures of the solution. The techniques described above have been implemented as an extension to the toolbox Analog Insydes, an add-on package to the computer algebra system Mathematica for modeling, analysis, and design of analog circuits.

$Rev: 13581$