Customer Reviews

Power Integrity Modeling and Design for Semiconductors and Systems

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At first, I was looking for a book covering on-chip power integrity issue and happened to find this book on Amazon. Since I can not search inside this book, I just bought it and later found it is related to the power integrity of package, not chip. However, I DEFINITELY don't regret buying this book because it covers one of the important pieces in the design of power distribution network.

After reading chapter 1, I realize that the power integrity issue should be attacked from a system point of view, including chip, package and board. Only considering on-chip power integrity is not enough because the power supply is located on the board and electrically far away from the chip. The important concept of target impedance is also introduced and really opens my mind on how to design a robust power distribution network.

Chapter 2 covers the modeling of power/ground planes in high performance package and board. Two novel modeling methods, transmission matrix method and cavity-model method are desrcibed in detail here. The major advantages of the two methods over full wave methods, like FDTD and FEM, are ease of integrating into circuit simulators.

Chapter 3 covers the topic of simultaneous switching noises. The signal nets are modeled as uncoupled microstrip and strip transmission lines. The coupling effects between signals and power/ground planes are modeled as controlled sources, which are obtained by mode decomposistion methods. Then, the uncoupled transmission lines and controlled sources are integrated with the power/ground plane models from chapter 2 to conduct simultaneous switching noise analysis.

Chapter 4 introduces time-domain simulations of power distribution networks. The major foucs is how to incorporate s-parameter data into time-domain circuit simulators. The techniques like vetor fitting, passivitiy enforcement by Hamiltonian matrix , signal flow method, and MNA with s-parameter are explained and compared.

Chapter 5 applies the modeling and analysis methods from previous chapters to real applications. Great insight is learned from these real world problems.

I strongly recommend this book to the designers and CAD tool developers of power distribution networks. Since the major focus of this book is package power, I also recommend two other books which cover board and on-chip power integirty issue respectively:

"Frequency-Domain Characterization of Power Distribution Networks" by Istvan Novak and Jason R. Miller

"Power Distribution Networks with On-Chip Decoupling Capacitors" by Mikhail Popovich, Andrey V. Mezhiba, and Eby G. Friedman

Although lot has been written about Signal Integrity (SI), hardly any book is available for Power Integrity (PI) except for research papers. However, recent high speed interfaces such as DDR memories and faster GHz processors pose enormous power integrity challenges. A timely and most authoritative book on this subject is "Power Integrity Modeling and Design for Semiconductors and Systems" by Prof. Madhavan Swaminathan and Dr. Ege Engin of Packaging Research Centre (PRC), Georgia Tech. , USA.

The book captures key results of the power integrity research particularly in the last 5 years and shows how these results can be applied to solve complex off-chip power integrity problems in practice. It also provides in depth understanding of algorithms specifically developed for power integrity model extraction and analysis. Besides R&D, understanding these algorithms and methods would also help to make judicious investments on appropriate tools for power integrity analysis. Analysis of power integrity issues and solutions on some of the leading designs from companies such as Sun Microsystems, IBM and Rambus is of great value addition in this book. What's more, authors also provide a freely downloadable tool developed at PRC, Georgia Tech. for power integrity modeling. Examples discussed in this book can be easily tried with this simulator.

The book is organized in to 5 chapters. The chapter 1 explains the fundamental concepts behind origin, modeling, design and analysis of power integrity effects. It also briefly discusses the techniques for high frequency power-ground impedance measurements. The concepts of self and transfer impedances are also dealt in this chapter. Additionally a methodology for power integrity modeling is presented which forms the basis for subsequent chapters.

The chapter 2 discusses the modeling of power and ground planes with both lumped and distributed circuit approaches. Some of the topics covered are Transmission Matrix Method (TMM), Finite Difference Method (FDM), Finite Difference Time Domain Method (FDTD), Finite Element Method (FEM) and cavity resonators. It also discusses in detail coupling of multiple plane pairs through vias and apertures.

The chapter 3 is all about Simultaneous Switching Noise (SSN). The challenge for SSN analysis is to model complex interaction between transmission lines and plane pairs. A modal decomposition method is introduced for the SSN analysis of plane pairs acting as return path for transmission lines. Applicability of developed SSN model in both time and frequency domains are analyzed. Case study of a complex board analysis using modeling approach developed is also included.

The chapter 4 discusses time domain simulation methods such as rational function method, Signal Flow Graphs (SFG) and Modified Nodal Analysis (MNA). These simulation methods provide time domain waveforms from frequency response captured through S-parameters or other equivalent parameters. The results derived in this chapter show why co-simulation of signal and power integrity effects is required and how this can be done using the simulation methods described. The importance of causality and passivity enforcement are illustrated through practical examples. The various time domain simulation methods are also compared.

The chapter 5 provides case studies of power integrity issues in packages and PCBs in leading industrial designs. Other topics covered are test structures for extraction of material properties, embedded decoupling capacitors and Electronic Band Gap (EBG) structures. Accurate extraction of dielectric material properties such as loss tangent and dielectric constant is essential for accurate power and signal integrity modeling. This material property extraction is always a challenge. The authors however describe a simple yet powerful test setup to accurately extract material properties for broad range of frequencies. Embedded decoupling capacitors are an emerging technology to suppress power supply noise and this is dealt in detail. The EBGs are a novel passive filter structure exploited to provide power supply noise isolation between sensitive analog blocks (ex. LNAs, ADC) and noisy digital circuits. This chapter provides an excellent understanding of modeling and design methods for EBG structures with practical examples.

The methods described in the above chapters were validated using a combination of measurements and full wave EM solver analysis. The book also provides complete details on the fabricated test structures for validation. Figures that illustrate the concepts in this book are so captivating that they more or less need no explanation. Although this book provides a complete picture of power integrity like that of a text book it lacks student problems to reinforce understanding. Nevertheless this is an invaluable book for students stepping in to the world of signal and power integrity, experienced professionals involved in high speed design and for all those developing signal and power integrity tools.