A macromodel for a ® xed, positive, three-terminal, IC voltage regulator is presented. The macromodel models the important non-ideal e ects of typical voltage regulators. The model can be used in both board-level design and as a block in a larger analogue VLSI design. Design formulas are provided so the model may be based on data sheet speci® cations or measured data. A design example is presented and compared to measured speci® cations.
IntroductionAccurate and reliable models for both analogue and mixed-signal integrated circuits (ICs) are essential for simulating board-level and/or system-level designs. Despite an abundance of operational ampli® er (op-amp) models, a need for welldeveloped, public domain, models for other common ICs or sub-circuits still exists. Examples are comparators, voltage references and regulators, voltage-controlled oscillators, phase-locked loops, and analogue-to-digital converters. Increasingly, macromodels are being developed to meet this need.The motivation for developing the ® rst well-known macromodel for circuits containing op-amps was a desire for quicker simulation times than could be achieved by using device-level models for the op-amps (Boyle et al. 1974). Today, speed remains an advantage, but stronger reasons exist for developing macromodels. One reason is simply to have a model. Often, the options for a simulation model may be a macromodel or having no model. Even if a user is fortunate enough to have access to a device-level schematic, developing a device-level model may be di cult or even impossible without access to transistor values and process parameters. If this is successful, problems with convergence and accuracy may still arise. Moreover, device-level models are in¯exible. For example, if a designer would like to consider what if ' scenarios on how IC characteristics will a ect circuit performance, it is often di cult to easily vary a parameter to see the resulting system variation.An e ective macromodel should be able to simulate the IC under AC, DC, and transient conditions with an acceptable degree of accuracy. A macromodel should bē exible enough to model a wide range of IC devices from di erent manufacturers and di erent technologies, as opposed to speci® c parts or ICs. While macromodels must conform to the basic operations and principles of the IC, they need not re¯ect every detail. It is important to have the ability to change and vary model parameters, and knowledge of how to do so is critical. For example, once the e ects of the IC characteristics are seen in a simulation, the circuit designer may set speci® cations for that IC, ultimately deciding what part number will be selected, or what speci® cations for the design of that building block will be. This cannot be achieved without the