Patent ID: 7277839

Claim:
A method for using a computer system to numerically simulate an electrical circuit having a plurality of nodes and i circuit elements, the method which comprises: a) reading a circuit description of the electrical circuit into the Computer system; b) reading in times t start and t stop of a time interval [t start ; t stop ]; c) reading in at least one input value of a voltage and current for the electrical circuit for at least one specific time in the time interval [t start ; t stop ]; d) calculating voltage values and/or current values at nodes of the electrical circuit at a plurality of times in the time interval [t start ; t stop ] using models for circuit elements of the electrical circuit; e) selecting a simulation time t n in the time interval [t start ; t stop ]; f) determining system equations of the circuit description for the simulation time t n such that said circuit elements are described by physical formulas and such that dynamic effects of said circuit elements are described by differential equations; g) calculating the voltage values and/or the current values at said nodes of said electrical circuit at the simulation time t n by solving the system equations that were determined in step f), the voltage values and/or the current values being calculated at the same nodes as in step d); h) using an equation t n+1 =t n +h for determining a next simulation time t n+1 by analyzing the voltage values and/or the current values that were calculated in step d), h = min i ⁢ h i and h i is a maximum permitted increment of an i-th one of the circuit elements; i) repeating steps f) to h) for a simulation time t n =t n+1 until t n+1 ≧t stop ; and j) outputting, on an output unit of the computer system, a profile of the voltage values and/or the current values that were calculated in step g) in the time interval [t start ; t stop ].