This may be of interest to some in the group:
IBM Electromagnetic Field Solver Suite of Tools
A suite of full-wave and quasi-static electromagnetic field solver tools used to calculate the electrical parameters for interconnection and packaging design.
The increase in complexity and data rates encountered in high-end computer systems requires larger, more accurate, and higher-bandwidth model generation for system performance evaluations. Modeling tools need to allow noise-free designs with fast turn-around times for many iterations in the design cycle, in addition to good productivity through interfaces to CAD tools and standard file formats.
The IBM Electromagnetic Field Solver Suite of Tools meets these needs. It includes full-wave two-dimensional and three-dimensional and quasi-static two-dimensional and three-dimensional tools, which are robust and accurate electromagnetic (EM) solvers for large problems. These solvers have unique features not otherwise available in the industry. The IBM Electromagnetic Field Solver Suite of Tools generates models for the signal and noise integrity analyses of critical system paths in order to afford multi-GHz operation.
Platform requirements
Operating system: L32-bit Linux, Red Hat 9.1 (recommended)
Hardware:
1 GB RAM, minimum 9 GB disk space, minimumDownload:
eip.zip 11776KB Zip file containing IBM Electromagnetic Field Solver
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IBM Broadband Transmission-line Characterization Using Short-Pulse Propagation
A software toolkit containing an advanced 2D field solver and signal-processing facility for extracting broadband transmission line properties.
IBM uses printed-circuit board materials in its servers that are incompletely or erroneously characterized by typical fabricators.
This problem results in IBM's having to perform extensive recharacterization in order to extract the frequency-dependent properties of such structures so that accurate predictions of system performance can be made. This toolkit can be used to perform accurate extraction of broadband material properties and it thus reduces or eliminates design errors prior to product manufacturing.
In addition, this technology is suitable for sharing with university educators for the purpose of training future engineers to perform complete material characterization of representative, multilayer wiring structures. Such broadband, causal extraction techniques cannot be obtained with other network analyzer-based techniques that are routinely employed in the industry. Broadband properties are essential for generating accurate models for digital signal simulations that have random-pattern data strings. Enforcement of causality is essential for >10GHz bandwidth signals.
The two components of this toolkit are CZ2D and Gamma-Z. CZ2D is a two-dimensional, electromagnetic modeling tool that has built-in facilities to guarantee causal results over wide frequency range.
Gamma-Z provides the signal processing capability of the propagated short-pulses launched on very simple test wiring.
CZ2D is a two-dimensional, "method-of-moment"-based field solver that calculates resistance (R), inductance (L), capacitance (C), and conductance (G) per unit length for any transmission line structure, such as printed circuit board interconnections. Frequency-dependent calculation can be made that is guaranteed causal for both R(f)L(f) and C(f)G(f) and for inhomogeneous dielectrics.
Gamma-Z is a broadband, lossy transmission line tool that accepts two digitized short pulses that are propagated on two lengths of identical transmission lines. The tool performs signal processing, rectangular time windowing of end effects, Fourier transformation, and ratioing. From this operation, the propagation constant G (Gamma) and characteristic impedance Zo (Z in Gamma-Z) are obtained.
The same elements are also calculated using CZ2D and a starting set of values of the complex permittivity for the material being evaluated. A built-in Debye model in CZ2D guarantees causality of results. By comparing the measured and calculated results and iterating a few times, the broadband complex permittivity is obtained.
The package includes the executable for CZ2D on Linux Red Hat 9.1 and Gamma-Z for the Windows platform. Manuals are also included, along with some example "run" cases. A graphical user interface (GUI) is additional software that allows the user to put in structure configurations to be solved using the toolkit.
The CZ2D component runs on Linux Red Hat 9.1, and Gamma-Z runs on Windows.
How does it work?
A short-pulse propagation technique is used to extract the frequency-dependent material parameters by using signal processing and structure modeling. The requirements for using this software involve standardized pulse generators and sampling oscilloscopes.
Gamma-Z software provides the signal processing of the propagated pulses and the results are fitted to modeled results based on CZ2D calculations. A Fourier transformation is performed in order to obtain G (propagation constant) and Zo (characteristic impedance), the two parameters needed for fully analyzing any interconnect, from which the total attenuation is obtained. Iterative fitting and modeling allow extraction of complex permittivity over the range 10 KHz to 50 GHz.
This technique is applicable to representative, multilayer circuit boards, ceramic wiring, cables, or on-chip wiring that are used in digital and communication applications in the semiconductor industry when building typical server systems, and especially the ones targeted for >10GHz clock operation.
Mike Monett
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