Exploration of a new, efficient approach to modeling and simulation of interconnects

In this paper, an overview of a standard macromodeling technique for high speed interconnects is first presented. Then its limitations are discussed. In order to overcome these limitations, a new technique is developed for interconnect macromodeling. By including the physical phenomenology of phase shift (time delay) in addition to the system poles, it is possible to model interconnects using far fewer terms than is possible with standard macromodeling techniques. Since this new technique directly models the time delay, causality is guaranteed. Examples of interconnect discontinuities are presented and the results are compared with those from standard simulation tools and the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) based technique.