SCATTERING PARAMETER-BASED SIMULATION OF TRANSIENTS IN LOSSY NONLINEARLY TERMINATED PACKAGING INTERCONNECTIONS

A new and efficient approach is presented for the transient analysis o f coupled transmission line structures frequently encountered in micro electronic packaging applications. Frequency-dependent parameters for the transmission lines, as well as nonuniformities in the cross-sectio n of the structures are taken into account. The method is based on the scattering parameter representation of the lossy and/or nonuniform in terconnects. An important advantage of this approach compared to previ ously scattering parameter formulations is that the scattering paramet er models have been fully integrated with the standard SPICE models of nonlinear semiconductor devices such as bipolar and CMOS transistors, thus allowing realistic modeling of the driver and receiver circuits terminating the transmission lines. Moreover, measured scattering para meters and non-TEM models can also be included in the simulation. To i llustrate the capabilities of this new method, several simulation stud ies showing the effects of losses and nonuniform interconnect geometri es on the propagating signals in transmission line circuits with nonli near terminations are included in the paper.