Fault modeling on complex field using least-square circle fitting for linear analog circuits

A new fault modeling method using least-square circle fitting (LSCF) for linear analog circuits is proposed in this paper. In this method, Monte Carlo simulation is used to obtain the output voltage values when the parameter of one faulty component is changed while those of the other components vary within their tolerance limits. All the output response voltage values for every faulty circuit statue are decomposed into real and imaginary parts on a complex field. Then, LSCF method is adopted to match these data, yielding a corresponding circular curve on complex plane, which also can be expressed with a circular function. Its center coordinates and radius are established as the fault features. During measurements, by calculating the distance from one real output to each circular center coordinate and comparing the distance with each circular radius, a faulty component can be diagnosed. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is verified by experiments. The results show that (i) the proposed fault modeling can accurately locate the fault component, and (ii) it can also simply be a fault dictionary. (C) 2017 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.