RF Designs and Simulations

Signal Integrity Analysis of High-Speed Interconnects Signal integrity (SI) addresses two key aspects in high-speed digital designs: signal timing and quality. SI analysis aims to ensure signals reach their destination in good condition. In a system, signals travel through various kinds of interconnections (e.g., from chip to package, package to RF board trace and trace to high-speed connectors), with any electrical impact happening at the source end, along with the transmission path or at the receiving end, which affects both signal timing and quality. Connector performance directly affects system performance and reliability. As a result, designing and modeling connectors for multi-gigabit applications is one of the greatest challenges in high-speed digital applications. When designing high-speed applications, the signal transmission quality is a critical factor. At gigabit speeds, high-speed interconnects must be characterized along with the RF board traces. The ever-increa...

BGA Package Design and Simulation A BGA package is very popular package style for high speed digital applications due to high density, low thermal resistance, and low inductance leads. In a BGA package, the electrical connections are made of solder balls stuck to the bottom of the package. However as the operating frequency and data rate go up, it is critically important for IC designers to understand the package’s electrical performance because of the parasitics that can come from the package. A package is the second most expensive part next to the silicon and can add 6 to 8 weeks to the cycle time. Given the very tight opportunity window for the majority of digital products, a failure to produce a successful package design can significantly reduce the profit margin or even kill the entire project. Designers are challenged to get the desired package performance right the first time. It requires fast and accurate analysis of BGA packages with EM simulators. A 45 mm pack...