Design and analysis of transient-suppression-devices based on SPICE-simulation

In order to meet the requirements of EMC directives and to obtain a high reliability of electronic systems, nonlinear protection circuits are necessary to suppress overvoltages and fast transients. Especially for RF-applications the designer has to match contrary criteria concerning the suppression of the transients and the influence on the transmitted information signal due to attenuation, reflection and nonlinear distortions. Therefore a systematic design approach for nonlinear protection circuits based on SPICE has been developed, which makes it possible to perform simulations both in the time- and frequency-domain and to determine the energy transferred to the load, that has to be protected. Furthermore evolutionary algorithms have been used to compute models for the precise simulation of the RF-characteristics (S-parameters) of the nonlinear protection circuit