Simulation of arbitrary transmission line networks with nonlinear terminations

The transient response of a high-speed digital circuit is determined by the interaction of a lossy distributed transmission line network and lumped nonlinear circuits. A robust and accurate method for the analysis of such a system is reported, and its implementation in an analog circuit simulator is discussed. The method uses a convolution technique and a time-domain impulse response to perform a transient simulation of a transmission line network. The time-domain impulse response is derived using a Fourier transform of modified frequency-domain scattering parameters. Implementation of the technique is verified by comparison with measured results.>