Global Modeling of Nonlinear Microwave Circuits

CHRISTOFFERSEN, CARLOS ENRIQUE. Global Modeling of Nonlinear Microwave Circuits (Under the direction of Michael B. Steer.) A global modeling concept for modeling microwave circuits is described. This concept allows the modeling of electromagnetic (EM) and thermal effects to be included in the simulation of electronic circuits, by viewing EM and thermal subsystems as subcircuits. Then, circuit analysis techniques are developed from a general state variable reduction formulation. This general formulation, based on the state variables of the nonlinear devices, allows the analysis of large microwave circuits because it reduces the size of the nonlinear system of equations to be solved. One of the derived analysis techniques is based on convolution and therefore provides modeling of frequency-defined network elements not present in conventional circuit simulators. Another analysis technique based on wavelets that would enable the multiresolution analysis of circuits is investigated. Also, a reduced state variable formulation using conventional time marching schemes is developed. It is shown that this can achieve more than an order of magnitude improvement in simulation speed compared to that of traditional circuit simulation methods. All these developments are implemented in a circuit simulator program, called Transim. This program provides unprecedented flexibility for the addition of new device models or circuit analysis algorithms. Transim supports the local reference concept, which is fundamental to the analysis of spatially distributed circuits and also to simultaneous thermal-electrical simulations. Transim is applied to the transient simulation of a 47-section nonlinear transmission line considering frequency dependent attenuation for the first time and the transient simulation, also for the first time, of two quasi-optical power amplifier arrays. Biographical Summary Carlos E. Christoffersen was born in Santa Fe, Argentina in 1968. From 1991 to June 1996 he was a member of the research staff of the Laboratory of Microelectronics of the National University of Rosario, Argentina. He received the Electronic Engineer degree at the National University of Rosario, Argentina in 1993. From 1993 to 1995 he was a research fellow of the National Research Council of Argentina (CONICET). In 1996, he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to pursue an M.S. degree in the USA. He received the M.S. degree in electrical engineering in 1998 from North Carolina State University. Currently he is pursuing his Ph.D. degree at the same university. Since 1996, he has been with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as a research assistant. He is a member of the IEEE. His research interests include computer aided analysis of circuits and analog, RF and microwave circuit design.

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