Affirma Spectre DC Device Matching Analysis Tutorial
Affirma Spectre DC Device Matching
Analysis Tutorial
The procedure described in this application note are deliberately broad and
generic. Requirements for your specific design may dictate procedures slightly
different from those described here.
Purpose
This application note describes how to
Use the dcmatch command in SPECTRE.
Examine the dcmatch results generated by SPECTRE.
Describe the models, equations, and theory of dcmatch analysis.
Audience
Circuit designers who want to find out dc variation and predict dc accuracy of
their designs.
Overview
The DCMATCH analysis performs DC device mismatch analysis for a given
output. It computes the deviation in the DC operating point of the circuit caused
by mismatch in the devices. Users need to specify mismatch parameters in their
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model cards for each device contributing to the deviation. The analysis uses the
device mismatch models to construct equivalent mismatch current sources in
parallel to all the devices that have mismatch modeled. These current sources
will have zero mean and some variance. The analysis computes the 3-sigma
variance of dc voltages or currents at user specified outputs due to the
mismatch current sources. The simulation results displays the devices rank
ordered by their contributions to the outputs. In addition, for mosfet devices
(limited to bsim3v3 now), it displays threshold voltage mismatch, current factor
mismatch, gate voltage mismatch, and drain current mismatch. For bipolar
devices (limited to vbic now), it displays base-emitter junction voltage mismatch.
For resistors (limited to two terminal resistance), it displays resistor mismatches.
The analysis replaces multiple simulation runs in the estimation of circuit
accuracies. It automatically identifies the set of critical matched components
during circuit design. For example, when there are matched pairs in the circuit,
the contribution of two matched transistors will be equal in magnitude and
opposite in sign.
Typical usage are to simulate the output offset voltage of operational amplifiers,
estimate the variation in bandgap voltages, and predict the accuracy of current
steering DACs.
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Help syntax
To obtain the command syntax on-line, users can type
spectre -h dcmatch
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Command syntax
The syntax of the dcmatch analysis is as follows:
Name [pnode nnode] dcmatch <parameter=value> ...
where the parameters are
1
mth
Relative mismatch contribution threshold value.
2
where=screen
Where DC-Mismatch analysis results should be printed. Possible values
are screen, logfile, file,or rawfile.
3
file
File name for results to be printed if where=file is used.
Probe parameters
4
oprobe
Compute mismatch at the output defined by this component.
Port parameters
5
portv
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Voltage across this probe port is output of the analysis. Instead of using
pnode and nnode to identify output, users can use oprobe and portv.
6
porti
Current through this probe port is output of the analysis.
Notice that porti allows users to select a current associated with a specific
device (component) given in oprobe as an output. This device, however,
has to have its terminal current(s) as network variable(s), i.e. the device
has to be an inductor, a switch, a tline, a controlled voltage source, an
iprobe, or other type of device which has branch currents as network
variables. Otherwise, Spectre will invalidate the request. Furthermore, for
inductor, vsource, switch, controlled voltage source and iprobe, porti can
only be set to one, since these devices are one port devices (two terminal);
and for tline porti can be set to one or two, since it is a two port device (four
terminals).
Sweep interval parameters
7
start=0
Start sweep limit.
8
stop
Stop sweep limit.
9
center
Center of sweep.
10
span=0
Sweep limit span.
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11
step
Step size, linear sweep.
12
lin=50
Number of steps, linear sweep.
13
dec
Points per decade.
14
log=50
Number of steps, log sweep.
15
values=[...]
Array of sweep values.
Sweep variable parameters
16
dev
Device instance whose parameter value is to be swept.
17
mod
Model whose parameter value is to be swept.
18
param
Name of parameter to sweep.
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State-file parameters
19
readns
File that contains estimate of DC solution (nodeset).
Output parameters
20
save
Signals to output. Possible values are all, lvl, allpub, lvlpub, selected, or
none.
21
nestlvl
Levels of subcircuits to output.
22
oppoint=no
Should operating point information be computed, and if so, where should it
be sent. Possible values are no, screen, logfile, or rawfile.
Convergence parameters
23
prevoppoint=no
Use operating point computed on the previous analysis. Possible values
are no or yes.
24
restart=yes
Do not use previous DC solution as initial guess. Possible values are no or
yes.
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Annotation parameters
25
annotate=sweep
Degree of annotation. Possible values are no, title, sweep, status, or steps.
26
stats=no
Analysis statistics. Possible values are no or yes.
27
title
Analysis title.
The dcmatch analysis will find a dc operating point first. If the dc analysis fails,
then the dcmatch analysis will fail also. The parameter mth is a threshold value
relative to the maximum contribution. Any device contribution less than (mth *
maximum) will not be reported. Where maximum is the maximum contribution
among all the devices of a given type.
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Example
dcmm1 dcmatch mth=1e-3 oprobe=vd porti=1
model n1 bsim3v3 type=n ...
+ mvtwl=6.15e-9 mvtwl2=2.5e-12 mvt0=0.0 mbewl=16.5e-9 mbe0=0.0
In the above example, a dcmatch analysis is to be performed to investigate the
3-sigma dc variation at the output of the current flowing through the device vd.
The porti=1 specifies that the current is flowing through the first port of vd (vd
has only one port obviously, thus porti=2 will be illegal). All device mismatch
contributions less than 1e-3 * maximum contribution among devices to the
output will not be reported. dcmm1 is the name of the analysis, which can be
used to identify output among analyses. The mismatch (i.e. the equivalent
mismatch current sources in parallel to all the devices that uses model n1) is
modeled by the model parameters mvtwl, mvtwl2, mvt0, mbewl, and mbe0. The
meaning of these parameters is described in the modeling section.
The output of the dcmatch analysis is displayed like this:
*********************************************
DC Device Matching Analysis mismatch1 at vd
*********************************************
Local Variation = 3-sigma random device variation
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sigmaOut
sigmaVth
sigmaBeta sigmaVg
sigmaIds
-13.8 uA
2.21 mV
357 m%
2.26 mV
1.71 %
mp6
-6.99 uA
1.63 mV
269 m%
1.68 mV
1.08 %
m01
-2.71 uA
1.11 mV
187 m%
1.16 mV
648 m%
-999 nA
769 uV
131 m%
807 uV
428 m%
m04x4_4
-999 nA
769 uV
131 m%
807 uV
428 m%
m04x4_3
-999 nA
769 uV
131 m%
807 uV
428 m%
m04x4_2
-999 nA
769 uV
131 m%
807 uV
428 m%
m04x4_1
-999 nA
769 uV
131 m%
807 uV
428 m%
m04
-718 nA
1.09 mV
185 m%
1.15 mV
599 m%
m40x04
-520 nA
1.55 mV
263 m%
1.63 mV
835 m%
m20x04
-378 nA
2.21 mV
376 m%
2.34 mV
1.16 %
-363 nA
539 uV
92 m%
567 uV
293 m%
m08
-131 nA
379 uV
64.9 m%
400 uV
203 m%
m16
-46.7 nA
267 uV
45.9 m%
283 uV
142 m%
m32
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m02
m10x04
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vd =-3.477 mA +/- 15.91 uA (3-sigma variation)
It says that the 3-sigma variation at i(vdd) is -3.477mA +/- 15.91uA due to the
mismatch models. The -3.477mA is the dc operating value of the i(vdd),
whereas the 15.91uA is the 3-sigma variation due to the device mismatches.
The device mp6 contributes the most to the output at
-13.8 uA followed by m01 which contributes -6.99uA. The equivalent 3-sigma
Vth variation of mp6 is 2.21mV. The relative 3-sigma beta (current factor)
variation of mp6 is 0.357%. The equivalent 3-sigma gate voltage variation
is 2.26mV. The relative 3-sigma Ids variation of mp6 is 1.71%.
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More Examples
dcmm2 n1 n2 dcmatch mth=1e-3 where=rawfile stats=yes
In the above example, a dcmatch analysis is to be performed to investigate the
3-sigma dc variation on output v(n1,n2). The result of the analysis will be printed
in a psf file. The cpu statistics of the analysis will also be generated.
dcmm3 dcmatch mth=1e-3 oprobe=r3 portv=1
In the above example, the output is the voltage drop across the 1st port of r3.
Since r3 has only one port, portv=2 will be illegal.
dcmm4 n3 0 dcmatch mth=1e-3 where=file file="%C:r.info.what"
In the above example, the output of the analysis will be printed in a file of
.info.what prepended with circuit name.
sweep1 sweep dev=mp6 param=w start=80e-6 stop=90e-6 step=2e-6 {
dcmm5 n3 0 dcmatch mth=1e-3 where=rawfile
}
In the above example, a set of analyses will be performed on output v(n3,0) by
sweeping the device parameter w of the device mp6 from 80um to 90um at each
increment of 2um. The results will be printed as psf files. The psf files will be
named as sweep1-000_dcmm5.dcmatch to sweep1-005_dcmm5.dcmatch.
dcmm6 n3 0 dcmatch mth=0.01 dev=x1.mp2 param=w
+ start=15e-6 stop=20e-6 step=1e-6 where=rawfile
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In the above example, an internal sweep of dcmatch analyses will be performed
by sweeping the device parameter w of the device x1.mp2 from 15um to 20um
at each increment of 1um. The results will be printed as psf files. The psf files
will be named as dcmm6_0.dcmatch to dcmm6_5.dcmatch. Notice that even
it is an internal sweep, six files still will be generated. This is contradictory to a
dc or an ac analysis, where only a single psf file is generated while sweeping a
parameter. This is due to the fact while sweeping a parameter, the rank order of
the output contribution for each devices may become different. Thus we need to
store the results in multiple psf files.
dcmm7 n3 0 dcmatch mth=0.01 param=temp
+ start=25 stop=100 step=25
In the above example, temperature is swept from 25C to 100C at increment of
25C.
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Affirma Spectre DC Device Matching Analysis Tutorial
Mismatch modeling
1. Use Model
After identifying the output, the user needs to specify the parameters for each device
contributing to the mismatch. Currently, The mismatch model implemented in Spectre for
Mosfet transistors introduces five additional model parameters, one for bjts and nine for
resistors.
To start the dc-mismatch analysis, the user types the analysis statement with the output
voltage on which the dc-mismatch analysis is to be performed. The results are:
1) The 3-sigma random output variation
2) The dc operating point information
3) For each Mosfet:
3-sigma output variation,
3-sigma Beta variation,
3 ( Ids )
Vout
Ids
3 ( )
------------------0
3-sigma Threshold voltage variation, 3(Vth)
3-sigma gate voltage variation, 3(Vg)
3-sigma current mismatch to nominal current ratio,
3 ( Ids )
-----------------------Ids 0
4) For each BJT
3-sigma output variation,
3 ( Ic )
Vout
Ic
3-sigma Vbe Variation, 3(Vbe)
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5) For each Resistor
3-sigma output variation,
3 ( Ir )
Vout
Ir
3-sigma Resistor current mismatch to nominal resistance current ratio,
3 ( Ir )
-------------------Ir 0
3-sigma VR variation, 3(Vr) = 3(Ir).R
3-sigma IR variation, 3(Ir)
3-sigma Resistor variation,
( Ir )
3 -----------------R
Ir 0
We define a threshold mth, below which the contributions will not be shown, currently, in
spectre mth = 0.1%. Mth is an analysis parameter.
2. Summary of Theory.
Statistical variation of drain current in a MOSFET is modeled by:
ds = I ds o + Ids
(EQ 1)
where:
Ids -- is the total drain to source current.
Id s o -- is the nominal current.
Ids -- is the variation in drain to source current due to local device variation.
Let Vout be the output signal of interest, then the variance of Vout due to the i th
MOSFET is approximated by:
2
Vout) i =
Vout
Id s i
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Id s o
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2 ( Id s i )
(EQ 2)
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Vout in (2) is the sensitivity of the output to the drain to source current
Id s i
and can be efficiently obtained in a standard way as outlined in part b.
The term
a- Mismatch models
The term 2 ( Id s i ) is the variance of the mismatch current in Mosfet transistors. The
mismatch in the current is assumed to be due to a mismatch in the threshold voltage
( Vth ) and the mismatch in the width to length ratio ( ). It is approximated as:
2
2 ( )
gm o
2 ( Ids )
2 ( Vth ) +
--------------------------------=
---------------------2
( Ids 0 ) 2
( Ids 0 ) 2
o
(EQ 3)
where
Ids
gm o = ----------Vth
,
Id s o
and currently, as implemented in Spectre:
2
2
mvtwl2
mvtwl
2 ( Vth ) = ------------------ + -------------------- + mvt0
WL
W L2
2
2 ( )
mbewl
----------------- = ------------------- + mbe0
WL
( 0 ) 2
Note, that gm o is computed at the DC bias solution from the device model equations,
the values a, b, c, d and e are the mismatch parameters while W and L are device
parameters.
Another way of representing the mismatch current is using the gate voltage variation
defined as:
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2 ( Ids )
2
( Vg ) ---------------------2
gm o
(EQ 4)
Similarly to the Mosfet, the bipolar 2 ( Ici ) and the resistor 2 ( Iri ) are computed for
each device provided that the device size, bias point and mismatch parameters are
known.
mrl
mrw
mrlw1
mrlw2
2 ( Ir )
------------------- = mr + ------------ + ----------------- + ------------------------------- + ------------------------------L mrlp W mrwp ( LW ) mrlw1 p ( LW ) mrlw2 p
Ir 02
( gm 0 ) 2
2 ( Ic )
----------------------------------=
( mvt0 ) 2
( Ic 0 ) 2
( Ic 0 ) 2
where gm0 is
Ic
VBE
and Ic0 is the nominal collector current, and Vbe =(mvt0)2
b-Mismatch analysis
Vout for each MOSFET i . The network is characterized
Id s i
with the standard MNA equations with the addition of the term for the mismatch
current:
The goal is to compute
( x ) + m Id s i = 0
i
(EQ 5)
where:
f -- is the vector of equations,
x -- is the vector of unknowns,
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Id s i -- is the mismatch current of the i th MOSFET,
m i -- is incidence column vector that maps the mismatch current of the ith device to
the proper MNA equations.
The output is defined as:
T
Vout = y x ,
(EQ 6)
where y is a column vector and superscript T represents the transpose.
In terms of (6), the sensitivity becomes:
T x
Vout = y ---------------- .
Id s i
Id s i
(EQ 7)
x
The term ---------------- is obtained by differentiating (5) with respect to Id s i -Id s i
f ( x ) x
--------------- ---------------- + m i = 0 ,
x Id s i
(EQ 8)
and then solving
f ( x)
x
---------------- = --------------x
Id s i
mi .
(EQ 9)
Combining (9) with (7), the expression for sensitivity becomes:
T f ( x)
Vout = y --------------x
Id s i
mi
(EQ 10)
Since there is only one output and many MOSFETS, it is efficient to define a
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vector z such that
T
T f ( x)
z = y --------------x
(EQ 11)
or
f ( x) T
--------------- z = y
x
(EQ 12)
After computing the vector z through a transpose solve in (12), the sensitivity of the
output with respect to each transistor current can be computed with one extra vector
product:
T
Vout = z m i
Id s i
(EQ 13)
and finally,
2 ( Vout ) =
( z T mi )
2 2
( Ids
i)
would be the variance of the output, where n is
i=1
the number of devices.
In the equations above, the bjt and the resistor contributions to the mismatch should
be added.
3. Finding Model Parameters.
To determine dcmatch model parameters, users have to go to their foundry or
modeling group, study the statistical process, then do a regression analysis. We will
give an example of how to use the concept of curve fitting to find model parameters.
The actual procedure may vary significantly and is a matter of art. We will only
introduce the concept. In general, to find parameters is not a trivial task.
Lets assume we want to find out the parameters mvtwl, mvtwl2, and mvt0, which are
used in the model equation
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2
mvtwl2
mvtwl
2 ( Vth ) = ------------------ + -------------------- + mvt0
WL
W L2
(EQ 14)
The modeling group needs to make, say 200 statistical measurements of the values
of 2 ( Vth ) by varying values of channel length L and width W. Provided that threshold
voltage extraction is a known procedure. Typically, threshold voltage is the value of
gate voltage that corresponds to a drain current of 1mA. Extraction of this parameter
is done at low drain bias (about 0.1V) although in modern technologies this value may
be even lower. Gate bias is increased gradually until this level of current is achieved.
After the 200 samples are collected, the task becomes to find parameters p1, p2, and
p3 to minimize the curve fitting error via the least square fit formula:
200
error =
i=1
p2
p1
2
y i ------------ + -------------2 + p 3
W i Li W L
(EQ 15)
i i
is the i-th measurement value (among the 200 measurements) of 2 ( Vth ) at
L = L i and W = W i . Once the p1, p2, and p3 are found, we can take the square root of
them to find mvtwl, mvtwl2 and mvt0, repectively. The minimum of error in Equation
(15) occurs where the derivative of error with respect to p1, p2, and p3 vanishes.
where
yi
error = 2
p1
error = 2
p2
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200
p2
p1
1
y i ------------ + -------------2 + p 3 ------------ = 0
W i Li W L
W i Li
i=1
(EQ 16)
i i
200
p2
p1
1
y i ------------ + -------------2 + p 3 -------------2 = 0
W i Li W L
W L
i=1
i i
i i
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(EQ 17)
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Affirma Spectre DC Device Matching Analysis Tutorial
error = 2
p3
200
i=1
p2
p1
y i ------------ + -------------2 + p 3 ( 1 ) = 0
W i Li W L
(EQ 18)
i i
The Equations (16), (17), and (18) can be rearranged in normal form as:
------------------------- W-------------2 2 2 3 W L
i i
W L
L
1
-------------------------- W-------------2 3 2 4
2
L
W L
W L
1
1
-----------W i Li
1
------------2
W i Li
i i
p1
p2 =
p3
yi
-----------W i Li
yi
------------2
W i Li
(EQ 19)
yi
Assuming that the matrix in the Equation (19) is not singular, then (19) can be solved
for p1, p2, and p3, using standard LU decomposition and backsubstitution. If the
matrix is singular, then different method such as singular value decomposition can be
used. The model parameters mvtwl, mvtwl2, and mvt0 are simply the square root of
the p1, p2, and p3, respectively.
As for illustration, we attach a sample C program here. The first half portion of the
program is to cook up 200 sample data points of yi to mimic measurement data. We
also create the right hand side vector rhs as in Equation (19). The last half portion
creates the matrix, and calls dense matrix solver routines dgeco and dgesl from
LINPACK (a popular dense matrix package) to obtain the fitted parameters. Upon
executing the program, we got this result:
model parameter mvtwl = 0.01
model parameter mvtwl2 = 0.003
model parameter mvt0 = 0
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generating 200 samples using the above parameters ...
fitted parameter 0 = 0.0102933
fitted parameter 1 = 0.00290799
fitted parameter 2 = 0
The program is by no means to be robust or efficient. Nevertheless, it illustrates the
concept of curve fitting. The exact procedure for fitting your measurements to obtain
proper model parameters robustly has to be developed by your modeling group.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <math.h>
#define F77CONV(array,i,j,lda) (array[ (i) + (lda) * (j) ])
main() {
int i, j, k, samples, n, lda, one, zero;
double y, sigmavth2; /* sigma^2(dvth) */
double mvtwl, mvtwl2, mvt0;
double w, l;
double r, t, rcond, tmp;
double alpha[3][3], rhs[3], work[3];
double farray[9];
int ipvt[3];
double drand_();
/* the following are the model parameters to fit */
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mvtwl = 10e-3;
mvtwl2 = 3e-3;
mvt0 = 0;
printf(" model parameter mvtwl = %g\n", mvtwl);
printf(" model parameter mvtwl2 = %g\n", mvtwl2);
printf(" model parameter mvt0 = %g\n", mvt0);
n = lda = 3;
samples = 200;
zero = 0;
printf(" generating %d samples using the above parameters ...\n",samples);
for (i = 0; i<n; i++) {
for (j = 0; j<n; j++) {
alpha[i][j] = 0.0;
}
rhs[i] = 0.0;
}
r = drand_(&one);
l = 0.18;
/********************************************/
/* portion1: generate fake measurement data */
/********************************************/
k = 0;
for (i = 1; i<=samples; i++) {
w = 1.0 * i; /* different channel widths */
if (i >= samples/2) { /* different channel lengths */
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k++;
l = 0.36;
w = 1.0 * k;
}
sigmavth2 = mvtwl*mvtwl/(w*l) + mvtwl2*mvtwl2/(w*l*l) + mvt0*mvt0;
r = drand_(&zero)*5e-2;
/* generate fake measurement data */
y = (1.0 +r) * sigmavth2;
/* create least square fit right rhs */
rhs[0] += y/(w*l);
rhs[1] += y/(w*l*l);
rhs[2] += y;
}
/********************************************/
/* portion2: solve for p
*/
/********************************************/
/* create the curve fittling matrix */
l = 0.18;
k = 0;
for (i = 0; i<samples; i++) {
w = 1.0 * (i+1);
if ((i+1) >= samples/2) {
k++;
l = 0.36;
w = 1.0 * k;
}
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tmp = 1.0/(w*l);
alpha[0][0] += (tmp*tmp);
alpha[0][1] += (tmp*tmp)/l;
alpha[0][2] += tmp;
alpha[1][0] += (tmp*tmp)/l;
alpha[1][1] += (tmp*tmp)/(l*l);
alpha[1][2] += (tmp/l);
alpha[2][0] += tmp;
alpha[2][1] += tmp/l;
alpha[2][2] += 1.0;
}
/* convert to fortran array, since we will be calling fortran solvers */
for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {
for (j = 0; j < n; j++) {
F77CONV( farray, i, j, lda ) = alpha[i][j];
}
}
/* solve the matrix to obtain the three fitted model parameters */
dgeco_( farray, &n, &lda, ipvt, &rcond, work);
t = 1.0 + rcond;
if (t == 1.0) {
printf("singluar matrix of alpha encountered rcond = %g\n",rcond);
}
dgesl_( farray, &n, &lda, ipvt, rhs, &zero);
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/* after dgesl, rhs contains p1, p2, p3 now */
printf("\n");
for (i = 0; i< 3; i++) {
if (rhs[i] <= 0) rhs[i] = 0.0;
if (rhs[i] >= 0) {
printf(" fitted parameter %d = %g\n", i, sqrt(rhs[i]));
}
}
}
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