What is a compact model? I am a domain scientist and I study biophysical systems. When I asked a colleague in CS for suggestions about how to design a multi-scale simulator, he mentioned the term "compact model".

Now, I can't find a very good definition of this term. I can find the book "Compact Modeling" edited by Gildenblat but this is a collection of domain specific applications, similar to what I found on google scholar. 

I haven't found a first-principles treatment of what a compact model is or the advantages of using one. It would be great to know where I could find this topic in a textbook or annual reviews type paper.

Q: What is a compact model, and when is it useful?
This paper uses the phrases "compact model" and "multiscale simulation". Perhaps it is relevant. Indeed, Googling "multiscale simulation compact model" yielded lots of results.

The back cover of the book you refer to states:


  Compact Models of circuit elements are models that are sufficiently simple to be incorporated in circuit simulators and are sufficiently accurate to make the outcome of the simulators useful to circuit designers. The conflicting objectives of model simplicity and accuracy make the compact modeling field an exciting and challenging research area for device physicists, modeling engineers and circuit designers.


My understanding is that a compact model is a parametric equation with certain parameters determined that models the phenomenon of interest to some degree of precision.