Versatile surrogate models for IC buffers

Abstract : In previous papers [ 1, 2] the authors have investigated the use of Volterra series in the identification of IC buffer macromodels. While the approach benefited from some of the inherent qualities of Volterra series it preserved the two-state paradigm of earlier methods (see [3] and its references) and was thus limited in its versatility. In the current paper the authors tackle the challenge of going beyond an application or device-oriented approach and build versatile surrogate models that mimic the behavior of IC buffers over a wide frequency band and for a variety of loads thus achieving an unprecedented degree of generality. This requires the use of a more general system identification paradigm.