An efficient methodology for extraction and simulation of transmission lines for application specific electronic modules

Abstract

Physical interconnect introduces new challenges for parameter extraction and delay calculation for application specific electronic module (ASEM) design automation. Efficiency dictates the precharacterization of extracted electrical parameters in the same manner as application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). However, ASEM interconnect is dominated by frequency dependent LC propagation which makes precharacterization difficult for all possible configurations. Moreover, simulating the transient behavior of the ASEM interconnect for noise and delay analysis requires the combined use of a variety of models and techniques for efficiently handling lossy, low-loss, frequency dependent, and coupled transmission lines together with lumped parasitic elements. We propose to use conformal mapping to generate abstracted models for the electrical parameters of various RLC interconnect cross-sections, including the frequency dependence caused by ground plane proximity and skin effects. Along with precharacterized lumped parasitic elements and nonlinear driver and load models, these models are simulated using a generalized time-domain macromodeling approach that can combine different types of transmission line analysis in one simulation environment. An automatic selection mechanism is derived for determination of the best time-domain macromodel for a particular distributed segment.