Electromagnetic Field Analysis of Digital Circuits and Modules for Electromagnetic Compatibility and Reliability

The progressive elevation of clock speeds in digital electronic circuits is compelling the merging of design considerations for such circuits with those of analog microwave circuits. For sufficiently high clock rates digital circuits develop substantial analog effects, such as coupling and radiation, that markedly affect the flow of signal pulses in such structures as multilayer circuit boards and multichip modules resulting in unreliable circuit or device operation. Traditional circuit models such as SPICE cannot account for the distributed field physics inherent in these processes. To accurately analyze and design complex digital circuits above 500 MHz, it is necessary to resort to full-wave Maxwells equations simulations to rigorously compute the electromagnetic field environment within the circuit. The goal of this effort was to initiate the development of electromagnetic models which serve as a bridge between electromagnetic field analysis, nonlinear circuit analysis and CADCAM design tools in order to model high speed digital circuits.