Finite-difference modeling of noise coupling between power/ground planes in multilayered packages and boards

Multilayered packages and boards, such as high performance server boards, contain thousands of signal lines, which have to be routed on and through several layers with power/ground planes in between. There can be noise coupling not only in the transversal direction through the power/ground planes in such a structure, but also vertically from one plane pair to another through the apertures and via holes. In addition, the continuous increase in power demand along with reduced Vdd values results in significant current requirement for the future chips. Hence, the parasitic effects of the power distribution system become increasingly more critical regarding the signal integrity and electromagnetic interference properties of cost-effective high-performance designs. We present a multilayer finite-difference method (M-FDM), which is capable of characterizing such noise coupling mechanisms. This method allows considering realistic structures, which would be prohibitive to simulate using full-wave simulators.