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

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.