Verification-Oriented Behavioral Modeling of NonLinear Analog Parts of Mixed-Signal Circuits

In this work, an approach to the “verification-oriented” modeling of the analog parts’ behavior of mixed-signal circuits is presented. Starting from a continuoustime, continuous-valued behavioral representation of an analog part in terms of a differential-algebraic equation system, a discrete-time, discrete-valued behavioral model is derived. This kind of model both captures dynamic aspects of the analog behavior and can be implemented using the synthesizable subset of a hardware description language like VHDL. With the help of the proposed approach, the continuous-time, continuous-valued analog parts’ behavioral descriptions can be replaced by digital behavioral models leading to a verification-oriented model of the underlying mixed-signal circuit. The resulting model can be formally verified using established methods and tools from formal digital verification. Keywords Behavioral modeling, mixed-signal verification, semiformal methods