Inductance calculations for advanced packaging in high-performance computing

Effective decoupling is crucial for the optimum performance of the power distribution network in an electronic system. As component packaging technologies evolve enabling tighter integration and faster operation of electronic systems, it is important to develop better decoupling strategies. This paper describes several new or proposed packaging structures and evaluates the connection inductance associated with possible decoupling capacitor locations. As expected, connections made on the chip tend to have a lower inductance than connections made on the package; and connections made on the package tend to have a lower inductance than connections made to the board. This illustrates the importance of providing decoupling capacitance as close to the chip as possible in order to maximize the effective bandwidth of the power distribution network.