DC operating point analysis using evolutionary computing

Abstract

This paper discusses and evaluates a new approach to operating point analysis based on evolutionary computing (EC). EC can find multiple solutions to a problem by using a parallel search through a population. At the operating point(s) of a circuit the overall error has a minimum value, Therefore, we use an Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) to search the solution space to find these minima, Various evolutionary algorithms are described. Several such algorithms have been implemented in a full circuit analysis tool. The performance and accuracy of the algorithms are compared to Newton-Raphson (NR). Evolutionary algorithms are shown to be robust and to have an accuracy comparable to that of NR. The development of a hybrid algorithm is also discussed.