Efficient methods for modelling substrate coupling in mixed-signal integrated circuits

Abstract

A key problem in the design of large mixed-signal circuits is the noise caused by the coupling of digital signals into the substrate. This paper describes methods that allow circuit designers to model efficiently such substrate noise in large mixed-signal SPICE designs. In the light of these techniques a new methodology is presented for efficiently modelling the substrate noise caused by current injection and its coupling to analogue signals; this is then extended to provide a real-time modelling capability. The practicality and the numerical efficiency of the methods are demonstrated on several prototype example circuits.