Power plane SPICE models and simulated performance for materialsand geometries

A SPICE model for power plane simulation has been developed. It is based on the geometries and materials of the power planes and uses a unit cell composed of RLC elements, transmission line elements or the HSPICE W-element. Simulated resonances in the frequency domain and delays in the time domain are consistent with results calculated from physical dimensions. SPICE model simulations compare well with hardware measurements in both the frequency and time domains. The role of dielectric thickness, dielectric constant and parallel pairs of power planes is demonstrated through simulation. The spreading inductance of power planes is defined, discussed and measured. Power plane performance in terms of impedance, resonances, damping and spreading inductance is optimized by the use of a thin dielectric layer between conductive planes     

Study of the ground bounce caused by power plane resonances

We describe Delta-I noise caused by power plane resonances in multilayer boards. First, we study the effect of power plane resonances on the ground bounce of the system by performing finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations. We simulate the voltage fluctuations at one point of the printed circuit board (PCB) due to a current surge between the power planes in a different point. Next, two methods to prevent this ground bounce effect are investigated. The first method consists of adding lumped capacitances to the design. The effect of one large capacitor is compared to the effect of adding a “wall” of smaller capacitors. A second approach is to isolate the chips by etching a slot around the sensitive integrated circuits (ICs) and connecting both sides by a small inductor. Both methods provide excellent protection against power plane resonances     

Application of the cavity model to lossy power-return plane structures in printed circuit boards

Power-return plane pairs in printed circuit boards are often modeled as resonant cavities. Cavity models can be used to calculate transfer impedance parameters used to predict levels of power bus noise. Techniques for applying the cavity model to lossy printed circuit board geometries rely on a low-loss assumption in their derivations. Boards that have been designed to damp power bus resonances (e.g., boards with embedded capacitance) generally violate this low-loss assumption. This paper investigates the validity of the cavity model when applied to printed circuit board structures where the board resonances are significantly damped. Cavity modeling results for sample lossy power-return plane structures are validated using a three-dimensional full wave numerical code. A simple method is also established to check the validity of the cavity model for a power-return plane structure with imperfect conductors and lossy dielectric substrates.     

高速嵌入式系统中电源噪声抑制方法

根据平面腔体谐振模型理论推导出高速嵌入式电路电源平面对阻抗函数关系式,分 析了电源平面对的谐振特性与PCB板材、介质层厚度以及导体平面的电导率之间的关系,得 出可通过减小介质层厚度、使用高介电常数的介质材料以及增加介质损耗等3种方法来抑制 电源平面对的谐振效应,并使用全波仿真方法验证了可行性。从时域仿真了高速电路中的噪 声传播与电源平面谐振的相互关系,结果表明,通过抑制电源平面对谐振阻抗可将电源噪声 减 小至原有结构的15%,从而有效提高系统的电源完整性。     

城市移动数字电视地面广播的信道噪声模型

21世纪以来,中国的一些大城市先后开展了数字电视地面广播试验,并实现了车载移动接收数字电视.试验中发现:车载天线因时空限制难以避开干扰源,白噪声与脉冲相混合的噪波不断地影响着车载数字电视系统的接收效果.为了进行高效的传播信号覆盖规划,需掌握实际运行环境中数字电视地面广播信道的噪声情况.本文介绍了上海市内公共交通线上UHF频段内某个频道的平均噪声功率测量结果;通过对噪声功率概率累积分布曲线的回归分析,不仅获得城市中三个典型交通环境下该UHF频道的噪声系数模型,而且给出了频道噪声系数统计分布的上侧十分位数K倍方差值.     

RF transceiver and transmission line behavioral modeling in VHDL-AMS for wired RFNoC

Despite the exceptional progress of MPSoC architectures, on chip communication networks remain a lock for the evolution of their performances due to the power consumption and the delay in data carrying. In this context, the wired radio frequency (RF) network on chip (RFNoC) has emerged. In this paper, we developed a library of RF component models in VHDL-AMS for time domain simulation. This library includes mainly the transmission line (TL) and the RF transceiver components such as the low noise amplifier (LNA), the mixer and the local oscillator (LO). The models consider the conventional parameters describing their performances including the non-linearities, the noise and the bandwidth of the LNA and the mixer. Leakages between ports are also considered for the mixer. The LO model considers the traditional parameters, more importantly its phase noise. The originality of the TL model is the modeling of the skin effect on a wide frequency range for time domain simulations. All the models are validated. Global simulations are performed to demonstrate the interest to accurately model the components of the RFNoC. The developed library is used here for wired RFNoC, however it can be used for all other wired and wireless RF communication system.     

Frequency dependencies of power noise

In this paper, frequency dependencies of delta-I noise caused by variations of the on-chip switching activity have been analyzed by simulations for a complex computer system board with multi-chip module, especially the impact of coincidences with resonances of the power distribution system. The switching frequency and the noise source waveform have been varied in case of a single delta-I step. For repeated delta-I steps the power noise dependencies on the repetition frequency, the duty cycle and the damping of the resonant loop have been analyzed. Simulations using switching current sources for on-chip switching have been confirmed by simulations with switching resistors plus de voltage source. Mid-frequency noise simulations using SPEED2000 and noise voltage measurements yield the same results within 6% for the first and second voltage droops and overshoots, if the real resistance of power/ground vias and module pins are included in the simulation.     

Modeling of irregular shaped power distribution planes usingtransmission matrix method

A major problem in power distribution networks is simultaneous switching noise (SSN), which causes several signal integrity issues. To understand the behavior of the power distribution system (PDS) and its contribution to SSN, noise prediction methods are necessary. This paper presents a method for analyzing arbitrary shaped power distribution networks both in the frequency and time domain. Using a two dimensional array of distributed RLCG circuits, the impedance of a power/ground plane pair is computed. For the efficient computation of the power distribution impedances at specific points in the network, a multi-input and multi-output transmission matrix method has been used. To verify the accuracy of this method, the simulation results have been compared with Spice which uses a circuit based approach and an analytical solution based on the cavity modes in the structure. The simulation results have also been compared with measurements for an L-shaped structure. The transmission matrix method has been applied to a split plane and an arbitrary shaped power plane to demonstrate the application of this technique to irregular geometries     

Nonlinear brake control for vehicle CW/CA systems

A brake control law for vehicle collision warning/collision avoidance (CW/CA) systems has been proposed in the paper. The control law has been designed for optimized safety and comfort. A solenoid-valve-controlled hydraulic brake actuator system for the CW/CA systems has been investigated. A nonlinear computer model and a linear model of the hydraulic brake actuator system have been developed. Both models were found to represent the actual system with good accuracy. Uncertainties in the brake actuator model have been considered in the design of the control law for the robustness of the controller. The effects of brake control on CW/CA vehicle response has been investigated via simulations. The simulations were performed using a complete nonlinear vehicle model. The results indicate that the proposed brake control law can provide the CW/CA vehicles with an optimized compromise between safety and comfort     

Noise in Current-Commutating Passive FET Mixers

Noise in the mixer of zero-IF receivers can compromise the overall receiver sensitivity. The evolution of a passive CMOS mixer based on the knowledge of the physical mechanisms of noise in an active mixer is explained. Qualitative physical models that simply explain the frequency translation of both the flicker and white noise of different FETs in the mixer have been developed. Derived equations have been verified by simulations, and mixer optimization has been explained.      

1/f noise synthesis model in discrete-time for circuit simulation

Flicker noise, popularly known as 1/f noise is a commonly observed phenomenon in semiconductor devices. To incorporate 1/f noise in circuit simulations, models are required to synthesize such noise in discrete time. This paper proposes a model based on the fact that 1/f processes belong to the class of statistically self-similar random processes. The model generates 1/f noise in the time domain (TD) with a simple white noise input and is parameterized by a quantity whose value can be adjusted to reflect the desired 1/f parameter, that is, the slope of the 1/f spectrum. It thus differs from most of the earlier modeling approaches, which were confined to the spectral domain. To verify fit between the model and actual 1/f noise measurements, experiments were conducted using discrete devices such as a PIN photodiode at various bias conditions and sampling frequencies. The noise synthesized by the model was found to provide a good match to the measurements. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the proposed 1/f noise model can also be incorporated in circuit simulations as a noise current or noise voltage source, which was not feasible earlier with the conventional spectral domain representation. To validate the inclusion of 1/f noise in circuits as TD current or voltage, simulations were carried out on a CMOS ring oscillator and the clock jitter due to 1/f noise was investigated.     

Effect of Noise on Analog Circuit Testing

The effect of test environment noise (tester noise) on test waveforms is considered. We show that tests generated ignoring the tester noise characteristics are prone to failure when actually applied to the circuit-under-test (CUT). The failure may result in the good circuit being declared faulty or the faulty circuit being declared good. This failure is independent of the fault model and nature of the test, i.e., AC or DC, time domain or frequency domain. We characterize the total noise at the primary outputs (PO's) of the circuit using second order statistics. We use the noise power spectrum and root mean square (RMS) values to make decisions about the test waveforms and recommend more noise-robust tests. For non-linear circuits we use the Central Limit Theorem of statistics to approximate narrow band noise at a primary input (PI) by a sum of sinusoidal distributions, and we use Monte-Carlo simulations to determine the noise at the PO's in the time domain. Results of experiments on an instrumentation amplifier, a biquadratic filter, and a Gilbert multiplier are presented, which prove that valid tests in a noise-free environment are invalid when tester noise is considered.     

Lossy power distribution networks with thin dielectric layersand/or thin conductive layers

Through their inherent skin losses, conductive planes around sufficiently thin dielectric layers may provide good suppression of plane resonances in printed-circuit-board power distribution networks. When combined with thin conductive layers, a resistor-like flat self-impedance and low-pass transfer-impedance profiles can be created. A lossy transmission-line grid model is used to simulate power-ground plane pairs with thin dielectric and thin conductive layers. Some of the modeling errors of the analytical plane-impedance expressions and lossy transmission-line grid plane models are compared. Simulated and measured impedances are compared on test structures with plane separation of 40 and 8 μm (1.6 and 0.3 mils)     

Despeckling of medical ultrasound images using Daubechies complex wavelet transform

The paper presents a novel despeckling method, based on Daubechies complex wavelet transform, for medical ultrasound images. Daubechies complex wavelet transform is used due to its approximate shift invariance property and extra information in imaginary plane of complex wavelet domain when compared to real wavelet domain. A wavelet shrinkage factor has been derived to estimate the noise-free wavelet coefficients. The proposed method firstly detects strong edges using imaginary component of complex scaling coefficients and then applies shrinkage on magnitude of complex wavelet coefficients in the wavelet domain at non-edge points. The proposed shrinkage depends on the statistical parameters of complex wavelet coefficients of noisy image which makes it adaptive in nature. Effectiveness of the proposed method is compared on the basis of signal to mean square error (SMSE) and signal to noise ratio (SNR). The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms other conventional despeckling methods as well as wavelet based log transformed and non-log transformed methods on test images. Application of the proposed method on real diagnostic ultrasound images has shown a clear improvement over other methods.     

Broad-band detection based on two-dimensional mixed autoregressivemodels

Two detectors for broadband plane waves in colored noise fields that use a linear array are described. The signal spectrum, arrival angle, and noise field coloration are not known a priori. Using a two-dimensional mixed autoregressive model, a generalized-likelihood-ratio test and its weak-signal equivalent, the Rao test, are derived. The performances of the proposed detectors are shown by computer simulations to be superior to those of conventional Fourier-based methods. Detection results for real data are presented     

Modeling of interconnect capacitance, delay, and crosstalk in VLSI

Increasing complexity in VLSI circuits makes metal interconnection a significant factor affecting circuit performance. In this paper, we first develop new closed-form capacitance formulas for two major structures in VLSI, namely: (1) parallel lines on a plane and (2) wires between two planes, by considering the electrical flux to adjacent wires and to ground separately. We then further derive closed-form solutions for the delay and crosstalk noise. The capacitance models agree well with numerical solutions of three-dimensional (3-D) Poisson equation as well as measurement data. The delay and crosstalk models agree well with SPICE simulations     

Theoretical analysis of iterative signal reconstruction for impulsive noise mitigation in OFDM systems

In this paper a theoretical analysis of the iterative signal reconstruction algorithm for impulsive noise mitigation in orthogonal frequency‐division multiplexing (OFDM) systems is developed. The following main results are developed: first, analytical model for the total noise in the frequency domain, and second the model for the total noise probability density function (pdf) in the frequency domain, both defined for each step of the iterative reconstruction process. Finally, based on the pdf of the total noise, explicit expressions for BER in kth iteration are defined as well. The main intention of the paper is to present the approach to theoretical analysis of the iterative impulsive noise mitigation algorithm that has not yet been appeared in the literature, because the theoretical analysis of the noise pdf during iterations has been considered as too complex a problem. Analyses and analytical results presented in the paper are given for scenario with a fixed number of noise impulses per frame. However, this is not a handicap of the proposed approach, since all presented models can be used as building blocks for scenarios with other impulsive noise distributions including Bernoulli–Gaussian and Middleton's Class A. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Efficient Drive Cycle Simulation

Drive cycle simulations of longitudinal vehicle models are important aids for the design and analysis of power trains, and tools currently on the market mainly use two different methods for such simulations: the forward dynamic and quasi-static inverse simulations. Here, a known theory for the stable inversion of nonlinear systems is used to combine the fast simulation times of the quasi-static inverse simulation with the ability of the forward dynamic simulation to include transient dynamics. The stable inversion technique and a new implicit driver model together form a new concept: inverse dynamic simulation. This technique is demonstrated to be feasible for vehicle propulsion simulation and specifically for three power train applications that include important dynamics that cannot be handled using quasi-static inverse simulation. The extensions are engine dynamics, driveline dynamics, and gas flow dynamics for diesel engines, which are also selected to represent important properties, such as zero dynamics, resonances, and nonminimum-phase systems. It is shown that inverse dynamic simulation is easy to set up, gives short simulation times, and gives consistent results for design space exploration. This makes inverse dynamic simulation a suitable method to use for drive cycle simulation, particularly in situations requiring many simulations, such as optimization over design space, power train configuration optimization, or the development of power train control strategies.     

The singularity expansion method applied to perpendicular crossed wires over a perfectly conducting ground plane

The singularity expansion method (SEM) has been applied to determine natural resonances of a set of perpendicular crossed wires over a perfectly conducting ground plane. The variation of the natural resonances and the mode and coupling vectors have been studied as parameters of the system varied.     

Subterranean power lines in high-density integrated Josephsoncircuits

We found from simulations that wide power lines are required to make bias currents of Josephson gates uniform. Magnetic noise due to large power current decreases the critical current of the adjacent gate. To enhance circuit integration and to stabilize circuit operation, we proposed a power line laid under the ground plane. The gates can be located above the power line inserting the ground plane. The new power line can make whole chip areas active for gates however wide the line is. We confirmed that the ground plane shields the gates from magnetic noise. We fabricated some test circuits using the new power lines and confirmed their operations