Efficient macromodeling of power distribution planes using delay extraction based transmission line representation

Abstract

With increasing clock speed along with decreasing signal rise times and supply voltages, transient currents caused due to simultaneous switching of large number of circuits can lead to voltage fluctuations in power distribution networks (PDN) [1]. Since PDN supply power to core logic and I/O circuits, such power distribution noise can severely limit the performance of the system [2]. Although the frequency response of PDN's can give sufficient insight into their performance, power supply noise is a transient phenomenon and needs to be characterized in the time domain when considering PDN's coupled with nonlinear drivers [3]. Thus, to accurately predict the electrical performance of these power planes over a large bandwidth, accurate broadband macromodeling of power planes is required.