Via connections between layers in a PCB board
On-chip series inductor

Problem Description

Decrease in pulse widths in digital circuitry has increased the frequency range of the current conducted by wires and traces. In many cases, a static approximation for the analysis of currents is not valid. In order to design and analyse circuits in this domain, full wave 3D EM analysis must be used. Examples in this domain usually require the analysis of:

• Traces on and in multi-layer substrates.
  
• Via connections between traces on different layers.
  
• Results over a wide band.
  
• Coupling between ports (parasitic and intended).
• Resultant fields in space (near fields and radiating fields).

FEKO Solution

Specific technologies in FEKO that are directly applicable to these examples are:

• Full 3D orientation of MoM basis functions - required for oblique structures such as wire bonds.
  
• Multi-layer planar Green's functions for the analysis of substrates.
• Adaptive frequency sampling for efficient calculation of wide band results.
• Coupling between ports requested directly and exported to Touchstone (*.SnP files).
• Little computational overhead for the calculation of near fields and far fields.
• Distributed memory solution for fast calculation of large problems with many structures embedded in Green's functions.
• Workplane structure definition allows for easy entering of planar geometry.