Optimizing VNA measurements by cascaded transmission lines for interconnect characterization

This paper models arbitrary interconnect structures by frequency-dependent coupled transmission lines in cascade. By optimizing the input impedance of shorted structures, we show that the RLGC parameters can be extracted reliably from the vector network analyzer (VNA) measurements. The probes and lead-in traces are easily de-embedded. It is interesting to see that a complex 3D structure can sometimes be modeled by a simple transmission line.