Using impedance (z) parameters to augment circuit simulation

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method for simulating an electric circuit that is represented as one or more partitions, each partition comprising a plurality of constituents representing portions of the circuit, wherein at least one of the constituents is a variable constituent for which the corresponding portion of the electronic circuit includes non-linear behavior, comprises: determining a first matrix for the variable constituent, wherein the first matrix describes a system of equations that represents a behavior of the variable constituent; determining a second matrix for the partition, wherein the second matrix permits calculation of short circuit currents from open circuit voltages according to a node tearing analysis method; and simulating a timestep of the simulation, the simulating comprising iteratively solving a state of the partition using successive guesses of the state of the variable constituent, wherein each iteration comprises solving the variable constituent independently to generate the open circuit voltages using the first matrix, applying the second matrix to determine the short circuit currents, and resolving the variable constituent with the short circuit currents applied and the forcing functions disabled; converging to a solution during the iteratively solving; and solving the partition state for the timestep responsive to the convergence.