Modelling and simulation of Zener diode noise in the time domain

Abstract

This paper presents a new time domain Zener diode compact model for transient noise simulation. SPICE2 and SPIC3 use piece-wise linear time dependent sources for generating complex waveforms. This approach is not practical when applied to randomly generated noise. Today, through on-going improvements to freely available circuit simulation tools, SPICE noise generation has moved to a new level. Ngspice, for example, computes white Gaussian noise ‘on-the-fly’ as transient simulation progresses. The proposed model has a simple behavioural structure that supports time domain shot, flicker, and thermal noise. The physical properties of the proposed model are introduced in the second section. This is followed by an evaluation of model performance in the third and fourth sections, including static d.c, dynamic charge, and transient noise characterisation. Finally, the fifth section summarises the conclusions of the research.