5. Mixed-mode circuit and system simulation

The challenge in mixed-mode simulation is not to simulate different types of electronic circuits, but to combine different algorithms into a unified structure and apply it to the entire circuit described at different levels of abstraction.

Event-based simulation has been developed primarily for digital circuit simulation, whereas analog circuit simulation is classically achieved by time-directed simulation. A mixed-mode simulator must solve the entire system using methods for handling nonlinear algebraic-differential equations, taking into account event tails for the digital parts.

Three basic approaches are possible:

• the augmented approach in which an analog simulator is used to simulate digital circuits or a digital simulator is used for analog circuits;

• ...