A new modeling methodology for power distribution systems of high speed microelectronic devices

In this work, we propose a new modeling methodology for simulation of power distribution systems at the package level of high performance devices (e.g. microprocessor). The methodology combines the power of the numerical modeling tools with the simplicity and speed of the TLM method. To capture non-ideal features such as cutouts in the ground planes, the electrical properties of the cells are derived and described in software models by full wave modeling. By cascading these cells, the entire plane can be formed for software modeling. In this paper, the scattering parameter data method is explored, where Ansoft´s High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS) is used to characterize the cells and Agilent´s Advanced Design System (ADS) is used for the circuit level simulation. The accuracy of the models and validity of the methodology has been verified through high frequency measurements on a real microprocessor package. Measurements were done as a one port device. Good correlations between the simulation and the measurements have been obtained.