Telesphor Kamgaing

A novel power plane with integrated simultaneous switching noise mitigation capability using high impedance surface

A novel technique for suppressing power plane resonance at microwave and radio frequencies is presented. The new concept consists of replacing one of the plates of a parallel power plane pair with a high impedance surface or electromagnetic band gap structure. The combination of this technique with a wall of RC pairs extends the lower edge of the effective bandwidth to dc, and allows resonant mode suppression up to the upper edge of the band-gap. The frequency range for noise mitigation is controlled by the geometry of the HIGP structure.

Design and modeling of high-impedance electromagnetic surfaces for switching noise suppression in power planes

This paper presents a detailed design and modeling approach for power planes with integrated high-impedance electromagnetic surfaces (HIS). These novel power planes, which were introduced recently, have the unique ability of providing effective broadband simultaneous switching noise (SSN) mitigation. Full-wave electromagnetic simulation is used to study the impact of the geometry on the performance of these novel power planes. It is demonstrated that power planes using inductance-enhanced HIS can be designed for broadband mitigation of the SSN from the upper hundred megahertz to the gigahertz frequencies. Physics-based compact models for the unit cell of power planes with integrated HIS are developed and several of them connected in a two-dimensional array to build full models for large and multilayer power planes. The compact model offers fast analysis of power planes. As an example, we show that the full-wave simulation time of a 10/spl times/10 cm power plane with integrated HIS can be dramatically reduced from 24 to 48 h using a commercially available three-dimensional full-wave solver to less than 1 min when using the compact circuit model developed here.

Modeling of frequency dependent losses in two-port and three-port inductors on silicon

New compact model forms for two-port and three-port symmetric inductors fabricated on silicon are discussed in this paper. These new models incorporate a frequency independent RL network that mimics the skin effect behavior of transmission lines on conductive substrates and can accurately predict the inductive behavior as well as the one-port single-ended and the one-port differential Q of these devices at microwave and millimeter wave frequencies. The new models are validated on inductors fabricated in a thick plated copper process.

High-impedance electromagnetic surfaces for parallel-plate mode suppression in high-speed digital systems

This paper discusses the application of high-impedance electromagnetic surfaces (HIS) for EMI shielding in high-speed circuits. The limitations of the HIS with straight vias are investigated and an improved solution proposed. The new solution can mitigate noise from DC up to 4 GHz.

Multiband Electromagnetic-Bandgap Structures for Applications in Small Form-Factor Multichip Module Packages

The design and implementation of package-level electromagnetic-bandgap (EBG) structures is presented. By using spiral-based inductance-enhanced electromagnetic-bandgap structures (IE-EBGs), the relative periodicity for achieving bandgap at extremely low frequencies is substantially reduced in comparison to traditional EBGs. Using both full-wave electromagnetic simulation and experimental characterization, it is demonstrated that this type of structure can exhibit multiple bandgaps, which are individually tunable through variation of the inductance per unit area and/or the unit cell periodicity. Sample structures with dimensions compatible with todays microprocessor packaging technology are designed and fabricated in a multilayer organic flip-chip ball-grid array package substrate. These package-embedded IE-EBGs have unit cell dimensions less than 750 mum and exhibit the first forbidden bandgaps for electromagnetic wave propagation below 10 GHz, which is a frequency band of interest for commercial wireless communication systems.

Inductance-enhanced high-impedance surfaces for broadband simultaneous switching noise mitigation in power planes

Full wave electromagnetic simulation is used to study the application of high-impedance surfaces (HIS) in simultaneous switching noise (SSN) mitigation in power planes. The impact of the geometry on the performance of power planes with simple and inductance-enhanced HIS is investigated. A lumped-element compact model form, applicable to both types of power planes is developed. Good agreement is obtained between the modeled and simulated S-parameters of the power planes from DC to 4 GHz.

Systematic analysis of inductors on silicon using EM simulations

This paper presents a systematic analysis of inductors on silicon by using EM simulation on a FEM (finite element method) based simulator. First, the EM simulation capability is established by achieving a good agreement with measured data in terms of S-parameters, quality factor, and effective inductance. Then, both the geometrical parameters such as inner diameter and number of turns and process parameters such as metal thickness and metal conductivity are varied to determine the impact on inductor performance. Also, different shapes of inductors, octagonal and square, are simulated to compare the performance. The use of ground ring is investigated to see the effect. The analysis provides a comprehensive guideline for designing and optimizing on-chip inductors on silicon.

A compact 802.11 a/b/g/n WLAN Front-End Module using passives embedded in a flip-chip BGA organic package substrate

This paper discusses the design and implementation of a compact RF Front-End-Module for 802.11a/b/g/n application. A high performance embedded passives technology has been developed by extending existing multilayer FCBGA packaging substrate technology to include thin film capacitors, resistors and spiral inductors. Using these basic elements, all of the passive building blocks for the RF front-end module (FEM) have been designed and characterized individually. Several of these building blocks have then been used in combination with surface mounted active dies to realize a dual-band one-transmit/one-receive WiFi FEM with dimensions of 8 mm × 8mm × 1mm. Preliminary measurements indicate small signal gain of 10dB at 2.4 GHz for the Rx chain

Development and application of physics-based compact models for high-impedance electromagnetic surfaces integrated in a power plane configuration

Physics-based compact models for the unit cell of power planes with integrated high-impedance electromagnetic surfaces are developed and cascaded in a two-dimensional array to build full models for large and multi-layer power planes. The compact model offers a significant advantage to the FEM-based electromagnetic simulation as it reduces the analysis time of a typical 10 cm/spl times/10 cm power plane from 40 hours to less than 10 seconds. The proposed compact model is also used to explore the noise mitigation at different locations of the power plane and in combination with RC decoupling for broadband noise mitigation.

Simulation, modeling, and testing embedded RF capacitors in low temperature cofired ceramic

Accurate circuit simulation models for embedded RF passive components in low temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC) provide a way to efficiently design high performance RF modules. This paper compares EM simulation results with lab measurement data for a set of embedded LTCC capacitors. Equivalent circuits based on EM simulation and measurement data describe all the important component properties including primary capacitance value, port parasitic capacitances, Q values as a function of frequency, and resonant frequencies. Models built from equivalent circuits accurately represent the performance of embedded RF module passive components when used with circuit simulation tools during RF module design. These models can also be used during IC design to simulate circuit operation in the RF module environment.