A comparison of interval methods in symbolic circuit analysis applications

Abstract

Symbolic circuit analysis involves deriving symbolic expressions for performance measures, such as voltage gain, input impedance, and evaluating them to obtain more insight into the behaviour of a circuit. In modern semiconductor technologies, it is more useful to evaluate the symbolic expressions using interval methods in order handle variations in parameter values. We compare the performance of different interval methods in evaluating symbolic expressions. Our experiments show that Generalised Interval Arithmetic is the most efficient method in affne form for our application. However, this method should be modified to suit long chains of computation. Our modification yields tighter interval bounds compared with other interval methods. © Austral. Mathematical Soc. 2011.