Time-stepping numerical simulation of switched circuits with the nonsmooth dynamical systems approach

The numerical integration of switching circuits is known to be a tough issue when the number of switches is large, or when sliding modes exist. Then, classical analog simulators may behave poorly, or even fail. In this paper, it is shown on two examples that the nonsmooth dynamical systems (NSDS) approach, which is made of: 1) a specific modeling of the piecewise-linear electronic devices (ideal diodes, Zener diodes, transistors); 2) the Moreau's time-stepping scheme; and 3) specific iterative one-step solvers, supersedes simulators of the simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis (SPICE) family and hybrid simulators. An academic example constructed in [Maffezzoni, , IEEE Trans. CADICS, vol 25, no. 11, Nov. 2006], so that the Newton-Raphson scheme does not converge, and the buck converter are used to make extensive comparisons between the NSDS method and other methods of the SPICE family and a hybrid-like method. The NSDS method, implemented in the siconos platform developed at INRIA, proves to be on these two examples much faster and more robust with respect to the model parameter variations.