Efficient analysis and design strategies for radio frequency boards dedicated to integrity monitoring of integrated circuits using an electromagnetic/circuit co-design technique

At the moment a lot of attention is devoted to power integrity (PI), signal integrity (SI) and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) of integrated circuits (ICs). For PI-, SI- and EMC-aware design, the modelling and characterisation of ICs is indispensable. Nevertheless, measuring the performance of ICs is not straightforward. Often, the behaviour of the IC-under-test is characterised by placing it on a radio frequency (RF) board and by performing measurements on the board. It was observed that this board often influences the characterisation of the IC. In this study the authors focus on efficient analysis and design strategies for reliable RF boards dedicated to integrity monitoring of ICs. The approach presented here is based on an EM/circuit co-design technique. The authors apply the technique to a canonical test board used for, among others, conducted susceptibility testing of ICs up to a frequency of 2.5 GHz. This is considered to be a relatively high frequency for conducted susceptibility testing of ICs, having the advantage of incorporating the important 2.45 GHz Industrial, Scientific and Medical band. Simulation results illustrate the novel techniques and demonstrate their validity and efficiency for analysis, deembedding and design purposes.