Fast Block-iterative Domain Decomposition Algorithm for IR Drop Analysis in Large Power Grid

Yu Zhong and Martin D. F. Wong
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign


Abstract

Due to the extremely large sizes of power grids, IR drop analysis has become a computationally challenging problem both in terms of runtime and memory usage. In order to design scalable algorithms to handle ever increasing power-grid sizes, the most promising approach is to use a ”divide-and-conquer” strategy such as domain decomposition. Such an approach not only decomposes a large problem into manageable sub-problems, it also naturally allow a parallel processing solution for further speedup in computation time. As a result, a power-grid analysis algorithm based upon the traditional domain decomposition method, which has strong limitation on the size of the interfaces between the sub-problems and therefore severely limits its capability in solving very large problems. In this paper, we present a block-iterative domain-decomposition algorithm which effectively combines the advantages of direct solvers and iterative methods.