Macro-modeling of analog blocks for SystemC-AMS simulation: A chemical sensor case-study

SystemC-AMS allows the simulation of complex heterogeneous systems, including software and hardware, in particular Analogue and Mixed-Signal (AMS) or radio-frequency (RF) blocks. These blocks require specific Models of Computation (MoC) to model the analog behavior. This paper presents techniques for the generation of analog macro-models that can be simulated using these MoCs. Both static and dynamic analog behavior are considered. While modeling the static behavior is straightforward, the modeling of the dynamic case requires a linearization of the block behavior. The approach proposed in this work consists of exploiting the frequency response of the focused component in order to obtain a fitted transfer function in the bandwidth of operation of the target block. The Laplace transfer function obtained is next modified in order to be described using the syntax and the primitive libraries offered by the current SystemC-AMS release. This resulting model is de facto a SystemC-AMS module that uses the Synchronous multi-rate Data Flow (SDF) MoC supported by the 0.15RC5 release of SystemC-AMS. We will illustrate these techniques for the case of a chemical sensor that uses a Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) and a Phase-Locked-Loop (PLL) microelectronics interface.