Physics-based simulation of nonlinear distortion in semiconductor devices using the harmonic balance method Original Research Article

Harmonic balance is a popular technique for simulating large-signal harmonic and intermodulation distortion in RF and microwave circuits. In this paper, we present algorithms which extend the applicability of harmonic balance to physics-based semiconductor device analysis. The algorithms presented here have been implemented in the PISCES-II device simulator, and have been used to simulate a wide variety of RF and microwave transistors embedded in realistic circuit networks containing biasing and parasitic elements. The simulator employs Krylov subspace solution techniques to solve the extremely large systems of equations arising in the context of two-dimensional device simulation. In the important case of multi-tone distortion problems, the size and density of the device Jacobian necessitate the introduction of novel preconditioning techniques (dubbed sectioned preconditioning) which exploit the special structure of the device simulation problem.