Spice-Oriented Frequency-Domain Analysis of Nonlinear Electronic Circuits

Distortion analysis of nonlinear circuits is very important for designing analog integrated circuits and communication systems. In this letter, we propose an efficient frequency-domain approach for calculating frequency response curves, which is based on HB (harmonic balance) method combining with ABMs (Analog Behavior Models) of Spice. Firstly, nonlinear devices such as bipolar transistors and MOSFETs are transformed into the HB device modules executing the Fourier transformations. Using these modules, the determining equation of the HB method is formed by the equivalent sine-cosine circuit in the schematic form or netlist. It consists of the coupled resistive circuits, so that it can be efficiently solved by the DC analysis of Spice. In our algorithm, we need not to derive any troublesome circuit equations, and any kinds of the transformations. key words: frequency-domain analysis, Volterra series method, spiceoriented harmonic balance method, HB device modules