A new fast method to find all the DC solutions of piecewise-linear (PWL)
resistive circuits is presented. The structure of the algorithm is based on
the exploration of a binary tree: each node represents a specific PWLsub
circuit, derived from the original PWL circuit by truncating the original
PWL characteristics. The terminal nodes of the tree represent the linear
circuits related to single linear regions. The natural exponential growth
of the tree is controlled by two different criteria. They are based on
the investigation of the convex solution domains of the so-called polyhedral
circuits or, alternatively, of the so-called rectangular circuits. The first
criterion is more efficient but more CPU-time consuming than the second one.
An appropriate combination of both allows the realization of an overall
algorithm faster than those based on a unique criterion.
