RICE: rapid interconnect circuit evaluation using AWE

Abstract

This paper describes the Rapid Interconnect Circuit Evaluator (RICE) software developed specifically to analyze RC and RLC interconnect circuit models of virtually any size and complexity. RICE focuses specifically on the passive interconnect problem by applying the moment-matching technique of Asymptotic Waveform Evaluation (AWE) and application-specific circuit analysis techniques to yield large gains in run-time efficiency over circuit simulation without sacrificing accuracy. Moreover, this focus of AWE on passive interconnect problems permits the use of moment-matching techniques that produce stable, pre-characterized, reduced-order models for RC and RLC interconnects. RICE is demonstrated to be as accurate as a transient circuit simulation with hundreds or thousands of times the efficiency. The use of RICE is demonstrated on several VLSI interconnect and off-chip microstrip models.