A review of techniques for electromagnetic modeling of electronic packages

Summary form only given. Techniques for the electromagnetic modeling of interconnections that lead to equivalent circuits suitable for incorporation into circuit simulation programs were discussed. Uniform transmission line etches on planar substrates are most conveniently and efficiently modeled using the integral equation method used in conjunction with the method of moments. However, the finite element method is better suited for this task when the cross-section of the line configuration is arbitrary and the dielectric substrate is nonplanar. It has been shown previously that direct Maxwell solvers in the time domain can also be used to compute the propagation characteristics and characteristic impedance of general transmission line configurations in a convenient manner. One of the most challenging problems in package modeling is that of deriving the equivalent circuit of discontinuities in single or multiple lines. Quasi-electrostatic and quasi-magnetostatic analyses of these problems are typically carried out by using the integral equation method. However, once again, the general-purpose programs are often direct Maxwell solvers, because these methods can incorporate automatic mesh generators for convenient description of the problem geometries and, hence, are potentially useful as computer-aided design tools.<>