Nullors, and Nullor Circuits;There Applications in Symbolic Circuit Analysis and Design

The objective in this presentation is to introduce some of the unique properties and applications of nullors in active circuit analysis and designs. The emphasis is to discuss the role nullors can play in symbolic representation of transfer functions. To show this we adopt the topological platform for the circuit analysis and use a recently developed Admittance Method (AM) to achieve the Sum of Tree Products (STP), replacing the determinant and cofactors of the Nodal Admittance Matrix (NAM) of the circuit. To construct a transfer function, we start with a given active circuit and convert all its controlled sources and I/O-ports to nullors. Now, with a solid nullor circuit (passive elements and nullors) we first eliminate the passive elements through AM operations. This produces the STPs. Second, the all-nullor circuit is then used to find the signs or the STPs. Finally, the transfer function (in symbolic, if chosen) is obtained from the ratio between the STPs.

High-Bandwidth,Low-Power CMOS Transistor Based CAB for Field Programmable Analog Array

This article presents an integrated current mode configurable analog block(CAB)system for field-programmable analog array(FPAA).The proposed architecture is based on the complementary metal-oxide semiconductor(CMOS)transistor level design where MOSFET transistors operating in the saturation region are adopted.The proposed CAB architecture is designed to implement six of thewidely used current mode operations in analog processing systems:addition,subtraction,integration,multiplication,division,and pass operation.The functionality of the proposed CAB is demonstrated through these six operations,where each operation is chosen based on the user’s selection in the CAB interface system.The architecture of the CAB system proposes an optimized way of designing and integrating only three functional cells with the interface circuitry to achieve the six operations.Furthermore,optimized programming and digital tuning circuitry are implemented in the architecture to control and interface with the functional cells.Moreover,these designed programming and tuning circuitries play an essential role in optimizing the performance of the proposed design.Simulation of the proposed CMOS Transistor Based CAB system is carried out using Tanner EDA Tools in 0.35μm standard CMOS technology.The design uses a±1.5 V power supply and results in maximum 3 dB bandwidth of 34.9 MHz and an approximate size of 0.0537 mm2.This demonstrates the advantages of the design over the current state-of-the-art designs presented for comparison in this article.Consequently,the proposed design has a clear aspect of simplicity,low power consumption,and high bandwidth operation,which makes it a suitable candidate for mobile telecommunications applications.

Modeling of the Earth’s Planetary Heat Balance with Electrical Circuit Analogy

The integral heat model for the system of the Earth’s surface—the atmosphere—the open space based on the electrical circuit analogy is presented. Mathematical models of the heat balance for this system are proposed. Heat circuit which is analog of the electrical circuit for investigating the temperature dependencies on the key parameters in the clear form is presented.

Improved RBF network application in analog circuit fault isolation

One kind of steepest descent incremental projection learning algorithm for improving the training of radial basis function(RBF)neural network is proposed,which is applied to analog circuit fault isolation.This algorithm simplified the structure of network through optimum output layer coefficient with incremental projection learning(IPL)algorithm,and adjusted the parameters of the neural activation function to control the network scale and improve the network approximation ability.Compared to the traditional algorithm,the improved algorithm has quicker convergence rate and higher isolation precision.Simulation results show that this improved RBF network has much better performance,which can be used in analog circuit fault isolation field.

Analog circuit intelligent fault diagnosis based on GKPCA and multi-class SVM approach

Analog circuits fault diagnosis is essential for guaranteeing the reliability and maintainability of electronic systems. In this paper, a novel analog circuit fault diagnosis approach is proposed based on greedy kernel principal component analysis (KPCA) and one-against-all support vector machine (OAASVM). In order to obtain a successful SVM-based fault classifier, eliminating noise and extracting fault features are very important. Due to the better performance of nonlinear fault features extraction and noise elimination as compared with PCA, KPCA is adopted in the proposed approach. However, when we adopt KPCA to extract fault features of analog circuit, a drawback of KPCA is that the storage required for the kernel matrix grows quadratically, and the computational cost for eigenvector of the kernel matrix grows linearly with the number of training samples. Therefore, GKPCA, which can approximate KPCA with small representation error, is introduced to enhance computational efficiency. Based on the statistical learning theory and the empirical risk minimization principle, SVM has advantages of better classification accuracy and generalization performance. The extracted fault features are then used as the inputs of OAASVM to solve fault diagnosis problem. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is verified by the experimental results.

Hierarchical Symbolic Analysis of Large Analog Circuits with Totally Coded Method

Symbolic analysis has many applications in the design of analog circuits. Existing approaches rely on two forms of symbolic-expression representation: expanded sum-of-product form and arbitrarily nested form. Expanded form suffers the problem that the number of product terms grows exponentially with the size of a circuit. Nested form is neither canonical nor amenable to symbolic manipulation. In this paper, we present a new approach to exact and canonical symbolic analysis by exploiting the sparsity and sharing of product terms. This algorithm, called totally coded method (TCM), consists of representing the symbolic determinant of a circuit matrix by code series and performing symbolic analysis by code manipulation. We describe an efficient code-ordering heuristic and prove that it is optimum for ladder-structured circuits. For practical analog circuits, TCM not only covers all advantages of the algorithm via determinant decision diagrams (DDD) but is more simple and efficient than DDD method.

Nano-scale Bias-scalable CMOS Analog Computational Circuits Using Margin Propagation

Approximation techniques are useful for implementing pattern recognizers, communication decoders and sensory processing algorithms where computational precision is not critical to achieve the desired system level performance. In our previous work, we had proposed margin propagation (MP) as an efficient piece-wise linear (PWL) approximation technique to a log-sum-exp function and had demonstrated its advantages for implementing probabilistic decoders. In this paper, we present a systematic and a generalized approach for synthesizing analog piecewise-linear (PWL) computing circuits using the MP principle. MP circuits use only addition, subtraction and threshold operations and hence can be implemented using universal conservation principles like the Kirchoff's current law. Thus, unlike the conventional translinear CMOS current-mode circuits, the operation of the MP circuits are functionally similar in weak, moderate and strong inversion regimes of the MOS transistor making the design approach bias-scalable. This paper presents measured results from MP circuits prototyped in a 0.5μm standard CMOS process verifying the bias-scalable property. As an example, we apply the synthesis approach towards designing linear classifiers and verify its performance using measured results.

Method for Analog Circuit Soft-Fault Diagnosis and Parameter Identification Based on Indictor of Phase Deviation and Spectral Radius

The soft fault induced by parameter variation is one of the most challenging problems in the domain of fault diagnosis for analog circuits.A new fault location and parameter prediction approach for soft-faults diagnosis in analog circuits is presented in this paper.The proposed method extracts the original signals from the output terminals of the circuits under test（CUT） by a data acquisition board.Firstly,the phase deviation value between fault-free and faulty conditions is obtained by fitting the sampling sequence with a sine curve.Secondly,the sampling sequence is organized into a square matrix and the spectral radius of this matrix is obtained.Thirdly,the smallest error of the spectral radius and the corresponding component value are obtained through comparing the spectral radius and phase deviation value with the trend curves of them,respectively,which are calculated from the simulation data.Finally,the fault location is completed by using the smallest error,and the corresponding component value is the parameter identification result.Both simulated and experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.It is particularly suitable for the fault location and parameter identification for analog integrated circuits.

Feature evaluation and extraction based on neural network in analog circuit fault diagnosis

Choosing the right characteristic parameter is the key to fault diagnosis in analog circuit. The feature evaluation and extraction methods based on neural network are presented. Parameter evaluation of circuit features is realized by training results from neural network; the superior nonlinear mapping capability is competent for extracting fault features which are normalized and compressed subsequently. The complex classification problem on fault pattern recognition in analog circuit is transferred into feature processing stage by feature extraction based on neural network effectively, which improves the diagnosis efficiency. A fault diagnosis illustration validated this method.

Data-driven fault diagnosis method for analog circuits based on robust competitive agglomeration

The data-driven fault diagnosis methods can improve the reliability of analog circuits by using the data generated from it. The data have some characteristics, such as randomness and incompleteness, which lead to the diagnostic results being sensitive to the specific values and random noise. This paper presents a data-driven fault diagnosis method for analog circuits based on the robust competitive agglomeration （RCA）, which can alleviate the incompleteness of the data by clustering with the competing process. And the robustness of the diagnostic results is enhanced by using the approach of robust statistics in RCA. A series of experiments are provided to demonstrate that RCA can classify the incomplete data with a high accuracy. The experimental results show that RCA is robust for the data needed to be classified as well as the parameters needed to be adjusted. The effectiveness of RCA in practical use is demonstrated by two analog circuits.

Wavelet neural network based fault diagnosis in nonlinear analog circuits

The theories of diagnosing nonlinear analog circuits by means of the transient response testing are studied. Wavelet analysis is made to extract the transient response signature of nonlinear circuits and compress the signature dada. The best wavelet function is selected based on the between-category total scatter of signature. The fault dictionary of nonlinear circuits is constructed based on improved back-propagation(BP) neural network. Experimental results demonstrate that the method proposed has high diagnostic sensitivity and fast fault identification and deducibility.

Combinatorial Optimization Based Analog Circuit Fault Diagnosis with Back Propagation Neural Network

Electronic components' reliability has become the key of the complex system mission execution. Analog circuit is an important part of electronic components. Its fault diagnosis is far more challenging than that of digital circuit. Simulations and applications have shown that the methods based on BP neural network are effective in analog circuit fault diagnosis. Aiming at the tolerance of analog circuit,a combinatorial optimization diagnosis scheme was proposed with back propagation( BP) neural network( BPNN).The main contributions of this scheme included two parts:( 1) the random tolerance samples were added into the nominal training samples to establish new training samples,which were used to train the BP neural network based diagnosis model;( 2) the initial weights of the BP neural network were optimized by genetic algorithm( GA) to avoid local minima,and the BP neural network was tuned with Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm( LMA) in the local solution space to look for the optimum solution or approximate optimal solutions. The experimental results show preliminarily that the scheme substantially improves the whole learning process approximation and generalization ability,and effectively promotes analog circuit fault diagnosis performance based on BPNN.

Robust Fault Diagnosis of Analog Circuits with Tolerances

A method for robust analog fault diagnosis using hybrid neural networks is proposed. The primary focus of the paper is to provide robust diagnosis using a mechanism to deal with the problem of element tolerances and reduce testing time. The proposed approach is based on the fault dictionary diagnosis method and backward propagation neural network (BPNN) and the adaptive resonance theory (ART) neural network. Simulation results show that the method is robust and fast for fault diagnosis of analog circuits with tolerances.

METHOD OF PARAMETER STATISTICAL ANALYSIS FOR BIPOLAR INTEGRATED CIRCUIT DESIGN

The method and procedure of realizing parameter statistical correlation analysis ofbipolar analog IC’s are given,and the statistical model of parameter are constructed with doubleparameters(B_F,R_S).Based on the comparison and analysis of the circuit characteristics,it isshown that the method can be used for analysis and design of bipolar IC’s.

Challenging the Evolutionary Strategy for Synthesis of Analogue Computational Circuits

There are very few reports in the past on applications of Evolutionary Strategy (ES) towards the synthesis of analogue circuits. Moreover, even fewer reports are on the synthesis of computational circuits. Last fact is mainly due to the difficulty in designing of the complex nonlinear functions that these circuits perform. In this paper, the evolving power of the ES is challenged to design four computational circuits: cube root, cubing, square root and squaring functions. The synthesis succeeded due to the usage of oscillating length genotype strategy and the substructure reuse. The approach is characterized by its simplicity and represents one of the first attempts of application of ES towards the synthesis of “QR” circuits. The obtained experimental results significantly exceed the results published before in terms of the circuit quality, economy in components and computing resources utilized, revealing the great potential of the technique proposed to design large scale analog circuits.

Fault Diagnosis of Analog Circuit Based on PSO and BP Neural Network

In order to improve the speed and accuracy of analog circuit fault diagnosis,using Back Propagation Neural Network(BPNN),a new method is proposed based on Particle Swarm Optimization(PSO)to adjust weights of BP neural network.The model can not only overcome the limitations of the slow convergence and the local extreme values by basic BP algorithm,but also improve the learning ability and generalization ability with a higher precision.The response signals of analog circuit is preprocessed by Wavelet Packet Transform(WPT)as the fault feature.The simulation result shows that the proposed method has higher diagnostic accuracy and faster convergence speed,which is effective for fault location.

A Hybrid GA-SQP Algorithm for Analog Circuits Sizing

This study presents a hybrid algorithm obtained by combining a genetic algorithm (GA) with successive quadratic sequential programming (SQP), namely GA-SQP. GA is the main optimizer, whereas SQP is used to refine the results of GA, further improving the solution quality. The problem formulation is done in the framework named RUNE (fRamework for aUtomated aNalog dEsign), which targets solving nonlinear mono-objective and multi-objective optimization problems for analog circuits design. Two circuits are presented: a transimpedance amplifier (TIA) and an optical driver (Driver), which are both part of an Optical Network-on-Chip (ONoC). Furthermore, convergence characteristics and robustness of the proposed method have been explored through comparison with results obtained with SQP algorithm. The outcome is very encouraging and suggests that the hybrid proposed method is very efficient in solving analog design problems.

Canonic Realizations of Voltage-Controlled Floating Inductors Using CFOAs and Analog Multipliers

New voltage-controlled floating inductors employing CFOAs and an analog multiplier have been presented which have the attractive features of using a canonic number of passive components (only two resistors and a capacitor) and not requiring any component-matching conditions and design constraints for the intended type of inductance realization. The workability and applications of the new circuits have been demonstrated by SPICE simulation and hardware experimental results based upon AD844-type CFOAs and AD633-type/MPY534 type analog multipliers.