Functional-level analogue macromodelling with piecewise linear signals

An analogue network macromodelling technique oriented towards functional-le vel simulation of both analogue and mixed analogue-digital networks is pres ented. The signals are assumed to be piecewise linear (PWL) waveforms. A cl ass of nonlinear inertial building blocks is introduced for modelling. The proposed macromodels are accurate in their timing behaviour and computation ally efficient, since an explicit algorithm to obtain the waveforms is used based on a PWL approximation of original smooth time responses. Practical macromodels of particular functional analogue units, such as an amplifier o r a voltage comparator, are derived in detail and their performance is comp ared with SPICE estimates. A macrosimulation example of an AID network is a lso included.