INTERCONNECT SIMULATION WITH ASYMPTOTIC WAVE-FORM EVALUATION (AWE)

Linear circuits are very useful for modeling the detailed behavior of interconnections on integrated circuits, printed circuit boards, and multichip modules. These circuits may contain large numbers of lumped resistances, capacitances and inductances, as well as distributed elements, such as transmission lines. In addition, there may be nonlinear elements to model the drivers, loads, transmission gates, etc. Since the asymptotic waveform evaluation (AWE) technique was introduced [10], it has proven to be an efficient and accurate technique for simulating lumped, linear circuits of arbitrary topology. AWE is therefore an attractive way to perform interconnect analysis. However, the basic algorithm must be extended so that distributed and nonlinear elements may be included in the simulation. This paper describes extensions to the AWE technique that make it applicable to the analysis of general interconnect problems.