Applications of a 3-D field solver for on-chip and package microstrip interconnection design

Accurate electronics package design is required for highperformance RF and GHz interconnections to minimize undesirable electromagnetic wave phenomena and to maximize the transmission bandwidth. Hence, prediction of electrica l performance of the microstrip line, essential even in ICs, is needed for efficient microstrip design and analysis. In this paper, an accurate and ef ficient design methodology for GHz IC and package microstrip interconnectio ns is proposed. In this analysis, three commercial software tools have been used and compared: three-dimensional (3D) electromagnetic (EM) field solve r, a planar 3-D (2.5-D) EM field solver, and transmission line calculator b ased on analytical solutions. Also for 5% error between 3-D EM field solver and 2.5-D EM field solver, the range of metal thickness (T)-to-dielectric height (H) considering fringing field, dispersion effect, and radiation los s has been investigated as more than 0.1 for relatively wide microstrip lin e (signal line width (W)-to-dielectric height (H) ratio greater than or equ al to1). Consequently, this work presents a contribution to an accurate and efficient design for the high-frequency on-chip and package interconnectio ns. We also study the comparison of EM solving and experimental approaches for on-chip embedded microstrip interconnection design.