Adaptive Sensitivity Analysis with Nonlinear Power Load Modeling

Abstract

Voltage fluctuation in power networks is a critical issue for VLSI designs. The analysis and optimization of the voltage drops rely on accurate sensitivity calculation. Due to the high complexity of large-scale circuits, in practice active devices are simplified with power load models. In order to grasp the details of voltage fluctuation, we propose a nonlinear power load model as a function of the supply voltage. We adopt an adaptive analysis algorithm to accelerate the calculation. The power load model provides efficient and accurate noise prediction at system-level.