Fast Full Board Crosstalk Scan for Signal Integrity Sign-Off for High Speed PCB Designs

Abstract

Crosstalk analysis for high speed PCB design becomes more and more important due to the high data rate and tightly coupled routing. Traditional circuit-based analysis can not meet the accuracy demand. Three-dimensional (3D) full-wave electromagnetic solver is required to capture the complex 3D PCB environment and the frequency-dependent phenomena. However it is prohibitively expensive to simulate the practical large board cases and the resultant tabulated S-parameter cannot be directly used to quantify the crosstalk level. This paper introduces a novel hybrid solver techniques with improved speed and accuracy. The new crosstalk metrics to quantify the crosstalk level are also developed by post-processing S-parameter. Combining these two techniques allows designers to achieve full board crosstalk in a few hours as planned intended with using the tool, which significantly reduces the post-layout review time, allows layout optimization and ensures a timely sign-off.