A Novel Electromagnetic Bandgap Structure for SSN Suppression in PWR/GND plane pairs

A. Ciccomancini Scogna, M. Schauer CST of America, Inc. 10 laurel Avenue, Suite 300, Wellesley Hills, MA 02481 USA antonio.ciccomancini@cst.com, martin.schauer@cst.com

Abstract Aim of this paper is to describe the simultaneous switching noise (SSN) mitigation by means of a novel electromagnetic band gap (EBG) structure with double L metal patches and two connected branches. The proposed EBG achieves -40dB of stop band over two distinctive frequencies range: 1GHz-4.3GHz and 5.8GHz-8GHz respectively. The impact of the proposed design on the signal integrity of a single-ended trace passing from the top layer to the bottom layer by means of two via transition is investigated in time domain by calculating eye-diagrams and Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR). A partial EBG model is finally proposed to provide a better performance in term of signal quality while keeping the noise suppression level of the full EBG model. Introduction Parallel plate waveguide (PPW) noise, also known as simultaneous switching noise (SSN) or ground bounce noise (GBN) is one of the major concerns for the high-speed digital computer systems with fast edge rates, high clock frequencies, and low voltage levels. The resonance modes between the power and ground (PWR/GND) planes excited by the SSN causes significant signal integrity (SI) problems and electromagnetic interference (EMI) issues for the high-speed circuits, therefore the elimination of this noise is essential. Adding decoupling capacitors to create a low impedance path between PWR/GND planes is a typical way to suppress SSN [1]. However, in general, these capacitors are not effective at frequencies higher than 600 MHz due to their finite lead inductance. A hybrid method which is considered to be an alternative to the use of decoupling capacitors is represented by virtual island (or gapped planes) and shorting vias [2]. The shorting vias are used to provide the return current path with low impedance and the virtual islands are used to block the PPW noise propagation through PWR/GND plane pairs. Recently, a new idea for eliminating the SSN is proposed by designing EBG structures [3-7]. When inserting an EBG structure in the parallel-plate waveguide-like structure of the Power Distribution Network (PDN) of a Printed Circuit Board (PCB), a resonant circuit composed of the top plate, a single patch, the corresponding via and the plane that connects the vias together is created. This circuit provides a lowimpedance path to high-frequency currents in the PWR planes therefore shorting the planes (resonance) at the physical location of the patches within the band-stop frequency range, thus suppressing propagation. In the present paper a novel PWR plane is designed with a coplanar EBG structure which provides two distinctive stopbands: 1GHz-4.3GHz and 5.8GHz-8GHz. Without needing

three or four metal layers, the proposed structure is based on the two-layer concept with designing a 2 dimensional (2D) periodic EBG patterns on the PWR plane and still keeping continuous for the GND plane. The SSN noise suppression is demonstrated by means of full-wave numerical simulations based on the Finite Integration Technique (FIT) [8]. The numerical code is validated by comparing the results due to two different solvers: time domain and frequency domain. The 2D EBG consists on an improved double L metal patches with two connected metal branches; vias are not required which means lower cost process, since the proposed EBG layer can be designed and fabricated by using any standard PCB process. Due to the periodic inductor and capacitor (LC) network realized by the combining effect of the solid GND and the EBG PWR plane, a band stop can be achieved. The impact of the proposed design on the signal integrity is also investigated in time domain by means of eyediagrams and TDR. The structure of the paper is the following: in the next section the test board used for the numerical simulations is presented along with the shape and the geometrical dimensions of the EBG plane. In the section III the impact of the considered EBG on the signal quality is analyzed by means of TDR and eye-diagrams. The concept of partial EBG for signal quality improvement is addressed in section IV. Finally section V offers some concluding remarks. EBG structure model and electrical properties The test board used to analyze the performance of the proposed EBG structure is the same reported in [9-10]. The geometrical dimensions are illustrated in Figure1: it is a 9.15x4.15cm board with FR4 dielectric (r=4.4 and tang=0.02 at 0.5GHz). The EBG layer is characterized by square patches with edge d=1.4mm and double L branches; the parameters are listed in TABLE I. The behavior of the structure is probed at two points by means of discrete ports; they realize an input power of 1W and enable the calculation of the corresponding S-parameters, based on the incoming and out coming signals. In addition it is possible to monitor voltage and current through them. A Gaussian pulse is used as input of the time domain calculation which is ideal for S-parameter evaluation since its transformed frequency domain signal is also a Gaussian shape. Two main advantages can be observed: 1) A limited bandwidth: this ensures that a mesh can be created where all stimulated frequencies can be properly sampled, 2) No zero axis crossings: this allows calculation of the S-Parameter over the frequency band of the Gaussian pulse. If there were zeros in the signal spectrum, the S-Parameters could not be calculated at these frequencies.

1-4244-0985-3/07/$25.00 2007 IEEE

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Figure 3b shows the output time signals for the solid PWR/GND planes and EBG PWR plane respectively. The peak transient noise for the reference board is 0.03V, while it is 0.014V for the case of EBG structure; therefore more than 50% of noise suppression is achieved.

(a) Figure 1. Test structure TABLE I EBG CELL DIMENSIONS parameters [cm] d 1.4 l1 1.35 l2 0.085 l3 0.095 g 0.055

The calculated S21 is illustrated in Figure2 along with the results due to [9]: two distinctive band gap regions can be clearly observed in the frequency ranges 1GHz-4.3GHz and 5.5GHz-8GHz.

(b) Figure 3. Comparison between continuous PWR/GND plane pair model and EBG structure: a) S21, b) output signal at port 2 (o21) In order to validate the numerically simulated results two different solvers have been used: time domain (TD) and frequency domain (FD), both implemented in the same FIT code [8]. Two different kind of mesh are employed by the two solvers to discretize the three dimensional (3D) model: hexahedral mesh for TD and tetrahedral mesh for FD, as depicted in Figure4.

Figure 2. Insertion loss S21: comparison between EBG proposed model and results presented in [9]. In order to have a comparison, a solid PWR/GND pair with the same dimensions but without the EBG patch layer is studied as well and the results are reported in Figure 3. A poor attenuation can be observed in this case over the considered frequency range.

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(a) (b) Figure 5. Comparison between time domain (TD) and frequency domain (FD) solver results: (a) S11, (b), S21 In order to test the flexibility of the proposed EBG model, and the eventual possibility to tune the bang gap region, the dimensions of the metal patch are changed according to the new values listed in Table II. Figure6 illustrates the calculated S21 and a -40dB stop band can be archived in this case over almost the entire frequency range (1GHz-8GHz) with the only exception of a small resonance at 3.8 GHz. (b) Figure 4. Mesh views, (a) TD, hexahedral mesh, (b): FD, tetrahedral mesh. The S-parameters results (magnitude of S11 and magnitude of S21) are reported in Figure5 and a good agreement can be observed over the entire frequency range (0-8GHz), although the simulation time and memory usage is on the behalf of the TD solution due to the high number of samples necessary in the FD to capture all the resonances (TD, 30min and FD, 3h, 23min). parameters [cm] TABLE II EBG CELL DIMENSIONS d 1.3 l1 1.25 l2 0.185 l3 0.065 g 0.015

Figure 6. S21: sensitivity analysis due to different patch dimensions (TABLE I - II) Figure7 illustrates the surface current distribution at different frequencies for the board with continuous PWR plane (Figure8c) and the board with EBG structure. The current variation is represented by a color contrast in these

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figures and the unit in the color bars is in [A]. Isolation is of course desirable between the two ports 2 in this example. Figure 7a shows that the EBG structure does not provide good isolation at 500 MHz since this frequency is still in the pass band region. Figure7b shows the current distribution on the EBG structure at 3.5 GHz, which is a frequency value in the stop band region. The noise generated by the current source on the input port can not propagate to the other metal patches characterizing the EBG structure which means that eventual noise generated by digital circuits can not propagate to the RF circuits located at the output port (port2).

order to better visualize the surface current pattern around the input port. Signal Integrity analysis Although the proposed PWR/GND plane design shows excellent performance on eliminating SSN noise at broad band frequency ranges, the presence of the EBG structure might degrade the quality of signals propagating on traces. This section will discuss the impact of the proposed EBG structure on the SI of a signal propagating over a singleended trace passing from the top (first) layer to the bottom layer (fourth) with two via transition along the signal path. The dimensions of the considered stack-up are reported in Figure8, the via radius is 0.1mm and the via antipad is 0.5mm.

(a)

Figure 8. Stack-up of the considered via transitions In particular for the investigation of the SI, eye diagrams as well as TDR impedance profile have been evaluated. Two parameters, Maximum Eye Opening (MEO) and Maximum Eye Width (MEW) are used as metrics of the eye pattern quality. For the reference board with continuous reference plane it results MEO=0.58V and MEW=0.45ns (see Figure9a) and for the board with EBG structure, MEO=0.4V and MEW=0.43ns (see Figure9b). Furthermore an impedance variation of about 5 ohm can be observed in the TDR evaluated for the model with EBG structure if compared with the case of continuous plane (see Figure10a) and smaller oscillations around 50 ohms are also present, probably due to the periodic gaps among the patches of the EBG cell. In order to minimize this problem, different simulations are performed and the TDR results are reported in Figure10b. In particular the following cases are investigated: 1) additional reference plane to provide a better return patch to the current (as proposed in [10]), 2) increasing the dielectric thickness on the bottom layer, 3) changing the distance between the EBG plane and the signal traces. As it is possible to see (Figure10b) the options 1) and 2) give some benefits and the maximum deviation of the TDR impedance is considerable reduced, even if some ripples still persist and the option 1) represents an additional cost due to the extra metal layer.

(b)

(c) Figure 7. Surface current distribution at (a): 0.5GHz on EBG plane, (b): 3.5GHz on EBG plane and (b) 3.5GHz on continuous reference plane It should be also noted that the scale for the surface current distribution in Figure 8a, b is reduced to 0-10 [A/m] in

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(a)

(b) Figure 10. TDR (a): continuous plane Vs. EBG plane, (b): comparison among different cases. Partial EBG structure In order to improve the signal quality of the propagating signals an alternative partial EBG structure is proposed. The purpose of the modified geometry is to provide a more continuous return path to the current while keeping the band gap properties of the EBG structure. Dimensions of the board and stack-up are the same of Figure1 and Figure8, but in this case the gap crossing the microstripline on the EBG plane is removed. Figure11 illustrates the proposed geometry with in evidence the partial EBG design.

(b) Figure 9. Eye diagram: (a) continuous plane, (b) EBG PWR plane.
Input Output

Figure 11. Partial EBG design proposed for the PWR plane. Figure12 represents the comparison between the TDR when a continuous reference plane is used and the one due to the new partial EBG design. Important considerations can be addressed: 1) the maximum impedance deviation has the same value in both cases and 2) the ripples in the waveform of the EBG design disappear completely. This means that the quality of the signal is considerable improved in comparison to the case where a full EBG structure is used. At this point it is necessary to step back in order to analyze whether the stop band properties of the EBG structure

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have been somehow compromised when the partial EBG is used. Figure13 illustrates the calculated S21 for the new geometry with partial EBG and it compares the waveform with the results due to the full EBG structure. Only a small shift in the stop band from 1GHz to 1.5GHz is observed in the partial EBG structure, but the stop band properties are well preserved over all the entire frequency range.

Signal integrity analysis is investigated by means of TDR and Eye diagrams so that the impact of the proposed EBG structure on the quality of the propagating signals is analyzed. An alternative partial EBG structure is finally proposed in order to improve the signal integrity while keeping the stop band properties. References 1. W.Cui, J. Fan, Y. Ren, H. Shi, J. Drewniak and R. DuBroff, DC power-bus noise isolation with power plane segmentation, in IEEE Trans. Electromagnetic Compat., vol.45, pag. 436-443, May 2003 2. S. Nam, Y. Kim, H. Jang, J. Jeong at Al., Performance analysis of signal vias using virtual island with shorting vias in multilayer PCBs, in IEEE Trans. on Microwave Theory and Technique, April 2005. 3. R. Abhari, G.V. Eleftheriades, Metallo - dielectric electromagnetic band gap structures for suppression and isolation of parallel-plate noise in high speed circuits, IEEE Trans. On Microwave Theory and Tech, vol. 51, no. 6, pp. 16291639, June 2003. 4. S. Shahparnia, O. M. Ramahi, Electromagnetic interference (EMI) and reduction from printed circuit boards (PCB) using electromagnetic bandgap structures, IEEE Trans. Electromagnetic Comp, vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 580587, November 2004. 5. S. Shahparnia, O. M. Ramahi, A simple and effective model for electromagnetic bandgap structures embedded in printed circuit boards, IEEE Microwave and Wireless Comp. Letters, vol. 15, no. 10, pp. 621623, October 2005. 6. T. Kamgaing and O. M. Ramahi, A novel power plane with integrated simultaneous switching noise mitigation capability using high impedance surface, IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 21-23, Jan. 2003. 7. G. Chen, K. L. Melde, Cavity resonance suppression in power delivery systems using electromagnetic band gap structures , IEEE Trans. on Advanced Packaging, vol.29, No. 1, pag. 21-30, Febrary 2006. 8. CST StudioSuite2006 B, also available at www.cst.com 9. J.Choi, V.Govind, M. Swaminathan, A novel electromagnetic band gap (EBG) structure for mixed signal system applications, Proc. of IEEE Radio and Wireless, Atlanta, Georgia, September 2004. 10. J.Choi, V. Govind, M. Swaminathan et Al., Noise suppression and isolation in mixed signal systems using alternative impedance electromagnetic bandgap (Al-EBG) structure,accepted for IEEE Trans. on Electromagnetic Compatibility. .

Figure 12 TDR waveform: comparison between continuous plane and proposed partial EBG design

Figure 13. S21 magnitude, comparison between full EBG and proposed partial EBG design Conclusions In this paper an efficient method for SSN suppression in high speed digital circuit using a novel electromagnetic band gap (EBG) structure with double L metal patches and two connected branches is presented. The proposed EBG achieves unwanted noise over two distinctive frequency ranges 1GHz4.3GHz and 5.8GHz-8GHz. By varying the design parameters of the proposed EBG, it is also shown how a tuning of the stop band can be easily performed.

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