A symbolic regression-based modelling strategy of AC/DC rectifiers for RFID applications

• The symbolic-regression-based modelling of electronic circuits is proposed.
• The AC/DC rectifier models and modelling strategy for RFID applications is presented.
• Excellent generalisation properties have been demonstrated on three CMOS test cases.
• The maximum achieved simulation speedup factor is 3.84E6.
• Proposed modelling strategy is intended for RFID designers to reduce the design time.

In this paper, we present the use of symbolic regression for the black-box modelling of non-linear dynamic behaviour in the AC/DC rectifiers of radio-frequency identification (RFID) circuits. Typical simulations of an AC/DC rectifier are exceptionally slow when performed using conventional transistor-level simulations. The proposed modelling strategy is capable of modelling the transient process, i.e., the change in the output voltage as a function of time, both accurately and efficiently. The accuracy and the simulation speed are compared to the transistor-level simulations. The results show that the symbolic regression models are accurate and several orders of magnitude faster than the transistor-level models. The proposed strategy is demonstrated for rectifiers designed using 130-nm, 180-nm and 0.35-μμm CMOS process. The simulation speed-up factor of the proposed model is shown to be between 1080 and 3.84E6 times for a root-mean-square error (RMSE) below 4.8 mV.