Transient analysis of dispersive VLSI interconnects terminated in nonlinear loads

A new algorithm to compute the transient response of a coupled, dispersive multiconductor system terminated in nonlinear loads is presented. The characterization of the multiconductor system is based on full-wave analysis using the spectral-domain approach, rather than the usual TEM approximation. To compute the transient response of such a system, a bilevel waveform relaxation method is used. Waveform relaxation is applied to compute a time-domain solution at the input and output interfaces. The waveforms are then transformed into the frequency domain to compute the updates induced by the multiconductor system and are transformed back to the time domain for the next set of relaxation at the interfaces, Techniques to improve convergence are presented and conditions for convergence are discussed. Examples of ECL, CMOS, and GaAs circuits connected by coupled lines are given for illustration.