Patent ID: 7451414

Claim:
A method for determining relevant circuit parts in a circuit in the event of loading with a temporally variable signal, the circuit having a plurality of circuit components operably interconnected and each operably connected between at least two circuit nodes, at least one relevance criterion in each case being assigned to at least some of the circuit parts, the method comprising: providing a computer-implemented model of the circuit, the model including circuit components represented at least partly by equivalent DC signal models, the parameters of the equivalent DC signal models taking account of at least one of a plurality of parameters of the temporally variable signal, the plurality of parameters consisting of: a gradient of a rising edge, a duration of a pulsed signal component, and a gradient of a falling edge, carrying out a DC signal analysis using the model, including involving a DC signal present on at least two connections of the circuit, the DC signal being dependent on at least one of a second plurality of parameters of the temporally variable signal, the second plurality of parameters consisting of an amplitude, the gradient of the rising edge, the duration of the pulsed signal component, and the gradient of the falling edge, and wherein the DC signal analysis includes identifying as relevant circuit parts any circuit part that satisfies at least one corresponding relevance criterion on account of the DC signal present at the circuit.