An Optimkation Technique to Minimize Crosstalk

in Multi-Layered and Multi-Microstrip-Line Board of High-speed Digital Circuits

Lm Lu and V Ungvichian
Department of Electncal Engmeenng
Flonda Atlantic Umversity, Boca Raton, F13343 1

--
Abstract Designing a digital circuit with faster clock rates, low
power consumption, and minimal interline-coupling (or crosstalk)
needs a critical board-level optimization. This paper refers to a multi-
variable optimization technique using spectral domain approach such
that the crosstalk and signal-distortions in multi-layered, multi-
conductor microstrip-lines can be reduced significantly. Simulated
results show that the maximum level of crosstalk in all the sense-lines
can be reduced at least by 42% as compared to the method(s) where a,,IS the Fourier coefficient and can be found by examining the
employing non-optimization techniques ['I. field behavior along the x-direction. Thus, all of the field components
in the Fourier domain can be expressed as follows:
1. INTRODUCTION
As clock rates increase, the small inter-line spacing used in high-
density PCB interconnects causes increased coupling and crosstalk,
and degrades the intended signal by introducing spurious responses
on the adjacent lines. Therefore, minimization of crosstalk and signal
degradation become a very important issue in microstrip-line designs.
The analysis of interconnections begins with the characterization of
coupled microstrip lines [ Crosstalk between a pair of parallel
microstrip lines can be modeled using the even and odd modes
approach. Gilb and Balanis['' have presented a method to reduce the
crosstalk and eliminate distortion by using the so-called compensated-
substrate structure. The principle of this method is to make the Applying Eq(2) to the boundary conditions at the interface y = h, one
propagation speeds of even- and odd- mode equal by controlling the can obtain the following final matrix:
height-ratio of the two substrates. But, since the coupling-factor is
also a function of other variables of the structure, and inasmuch as
each additional conductor may introduce a new propagating mode, it (3)
is very difficult to make the propagation speed of each mode equal,
or even close enough, just by manipulating the proper height-ratio of
the two substrates. Therefore, the relevant method becomes less
efficient as the number of the transmission lines increases. :here G,(a,,,P) are the dyadic Green's functions of the structure. And
In this paper, the spectral domain approach (SDA) with a multi- J , and J z are Fourier transforms of the transverse and longitudinal
variable optimization technique is introduced so that several current distributions on the strips. Using Galerkin's method, the
parameters can be optimized simultaneously. It proves to be an propagation constant p, characterizing the dispersion and coupling
efficient approach for high-speed interconnect design. properties of the structure, can be solved from Eq.(3). A detailed
explanation of spectral domain approach can be found in [6] and an
i' excellent list of references are given in [7].
For a transmission line system with multilayer dielectric and
coplanar conductors, the principal objective of the spectral domain
solution corresponds to establishing a relationship among the Fourier
transforms of current and field distributions J,(x), J,(x), E,(x)and E4x)
associated with the interface where the strips are laid. In mathematical
terms, evaluating the Green's functions, G(a,,,P), is the primary
objective. The transfer matrix method using the SDA presented in [SI
can be adopted to derive the Green's functions of a multilayer planar
structure systematically.And also it can be proved that the number of
Fig. 1. A coupled microstrip line
dielectric layers does not have an effect on the order of the matrix
specifying the Green's functions in the spectral domain adopted.
Therefore, for a multilayer structure with coplanar conductors, the
2. SPECTRAL-DOMAIN APPROACH (SDA)' representation relating the current distributions to the electric fields
The test microstrip-line structure is enclosed in a space having four is the same as Eq.(3).
sides of perfect electric conductors at x = -a, a and y = 0, H (see The procedures discussed above can also be extended to an open
Fig. 1). Generally such a transmission medium supports hybrid modes. microstrip structure by setting a- and H-m.
Thus, the fields in each dielectric region can be regarded as the
superposition of TE and TM modes. In other words, the field of each
3. COUPLINGAND DISTORTION OF A PULSESIGNAL
region (i = I , 2 ) can be expressed in terms of an electrical potential
To analyze a symmetric, two-line microstrip structure (see Fig.l),
function 4, and a magnetic potential function &.. These potential
the input signal is split into even- and odd-mode configurations. For
.functions in the Fourier domain can be written as:
the even mode, two in-phase signals whose amplitudes are one-half

0-7803-3207-5/96/$5.000 1996 IEEE 442

of the original signal are propagated in both strips. The odd mode has
two signals of one half amplitude, but these signals are 180 out of
phase. The difference between the speeds of these two modes results
in a dispersion on the signal line and coupling between the two lines.
Fig.2 illustrates how the coupling distortion is created. Applying
superposition for each line, the output responses on both lines can be
mathematically expressed as:
where
vfr,z)represents either ve(t,z) for even mode or vo(r,z)for odd mode.
eeflrefers to either the effective dielectric constant for even mode,
namely, or for odd mode. They can be solved from Eq.(3);
and, V is the Fourier transform of an input signal v(r,z) at a source
end.
"&"a "lode
+ a -.+
saueline 0+
&mode
+
n ,&,
--.--.-line2
-7-
LLJ
w compensated-substrate thickaess. The optimization objective is to
m+rL
L-J
Fig.2. Concept of inter-line coupling. (a) Split into even and odd
modes. (b) Distortion after a certain distance. (c) Even and odd
separate completely.
For a symmetric, N-line structure, an input signal can be split into N
configurations that correspond to N different modes. For a given
mode j, the output on line i to a signal input on line k can be
calculated from:
where E,,(@) is the @ofmode j. a" is a proportionality constant that
relates the current density on line i to the reference line in the
configuration of the j" mode. cjk is a constant to be determined. The
restriction on cjk is that the whole set consisting of clt,c,, , .... c,
makes v,@) in Eq.(6) to be a unit amplitude on the signal line k and
zero on the other sense lines i ( i k ) if E@ is independent with
modes.
4. OPTIMIZATION
In a coupled microstrip transmission line (see Fig.l), the in-phase
pair (even mode) and out-of phase pair (odd mode) travel down the
line at two different speeds due to the difference in the effective
dielectric constants of even- and odd- modes (eaeand ecfl0). The
443
even- and odd-mode pairs of pulses add constructively on the signal
line, and destructively on the sense line, as shown in Fig.2. To isolate
the effects of evedodd-mode distortion, a method must be found to
make E and equal. For an one-layer substrate structure, as
P
a function of frequency, is always larger than E&. Thus, it is rather
impossible to have and identical. However, a multilayer
substrate configuration can implement the above objective over a
broadband frequency range by choice of the proper relative dielectric
constant and the height of each substrate. An example is given in [1J
where equals at the two height ratios of two-layer substrate
of 0.35 and 0.85 for a specified two-microstrip-line, two-layer-
substrate board. Therefore. coupling distortion can be eliminated in
those two different configurations.
However, as the number of conductive strips increases, it may be
impossible to find an intersection point where Ezamatchingis feasible
using the substrate compensation method only. The reason is that the
effective dielectric constant for each mode is a function of several
variables of the structure. Therefore, in order to minimize the
crosstalk in multitrace structures, this paper introduces a multi-
variable optimization technique using spectral domain approach to
search for an optimal configuration of the multiconductor microstrip
transmission line system. For the purpose of analysis, a function is
defined as follows:
- -
Mux{Q,, - E'@*"} g(w/s, JI{JIM,h
m 1,2,3 ,...3, n = 1,2,3,...JV (7)
where m or n refers to the index of irh mode, and h, is the
minimize g(w/s, hJh,J in the specified ranges of a strip width w and
substrate thickness h, (where the space between two lines is s and
total substrate height is &>.With h,/h,Otand wls as variables, an SDA
code for multi-variable optimization technique was written to
calculate and determine the configuration which gives the minimum
coupling and minimum signal distortion within the specified range of
structure dimensions.
5. RES"
To illustrate the efficacy of the above method, simulations were
done on the two kinds of microstrip systems:
- four-microstrip-line, one-layer substrate board.
- four-microstrip-line,two-layer substrate board.
A 25ps gaussian pulse was chosen as an input signd. The output
responses of each microstrip system were observed at a distance of
40mm, 100" and 2 0 0 " from the source end, respectively (see
Figs.3-5). The coupling responses on sense-lines are presented on an
expanded scale and plotted for each case. In Figs.3-5, the outputs of
part (a) correspond to the system with one-layer substrate; the outputs
in part (b) are obtained from the compensated-substrate structure; the
outputs in part (c) are in respect of the optimized configurations.
The results in maximum coupling amplitude (peak-to-peak value),
Vnu4p.p, on all sense-lines from Figs.3-5 are shown on Table 1. For a
four-microstrip-line board w$th w = s = O . 5 ~h,=0.635nvn,
, ~~~'2.2,
~ , ~ = 9 . the
7 , data in Table 1 show the percentage reduction of
crosstalk levels on the compensated-substrate board (h&,,=0.98) and
the corresponding optimized board (w/s=5.4, h,h,=0.95), as
compared to the single-layer board (h,=O). Table 2 gives the
percentage distortion of a gaussian signal propagating on the single-
layer substrate board, two-layer substrate board and on the optimized
board, as compared to an unciistortion gaussion pulse signal.
 [7] R. H. Jansen, "The spectral-domain approach for microwave
integrated circuits," ZEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol.
MTT-33, pp. 1043-1056, Jan. 1985.'
% Reduction of Observation location from the source-
[S] J.B.Davies and D.Mirshekar-SyaNcal,"Spectraldomain solution
crosstalk end of arbitrary coplanar transmission line with multilayer substrate,"
40" I loomm I200mm IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. MTT-24, pp. 143-
146, Feb. 1917.
Two layer board 54% 48% 24%
Optimized board 76% 71% 57%

Table 2 Amplitude distortion of a Gaussian-shapedpulse

% Distortion Observation location from the source-

Single layer board 3.3% 16.5% 31.3%

Twolayerboard I 1.4% I 8.4% I 19.4% I
Optimzed board 0 2% 18% 5 9%

6. REFERENCES
[I] J.P.K.Gilb and C.A.Balanis,"Pulse distortion on multilayer
coupled mcrostrip lines," ZEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech.,
vol. MTT-37, pp. 1620-1629, Oct. 1989.
[2] S.Seki and H.Hasegawa,"Analysis of crosstalk in very hgh-
speed LSWLSI's using a coupled multiconductor MIS
microstrip line model," ZEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech.,
vol. MTT-32, pp. 1715-1720, Dec. 1984.
[3] D. A. Hill, K. H Cavcey and R. T. Johnk,"Crosstalk between
microstrip transmission lines," IEEE Trans. Electromagn.
Compat, vol. EMC-36, pp. 314-321, Nov. 1994.
[4] J.P.K.Gilb and C.A.Balams,"Asymmetnc, multi-conductor low-
coupling structures for high-speed, high-density digital
interconnects," ZEEE Trans Microwave Theory Tech., vol.
MTT-39, pp. 2100-2106, Dec. 1991.
[5] T. Itoh and R. Mittra,"A technique for computing dispersion
characteristics of shielded microstnp lines," ZEEE Trans.
Microwave Theory Tech., vol. MTT-22, pp. 896-898, Oct 1974
[6] T.Uwano and T Itoh,"Spectral domain approach," in Numerical
Techniques for Microwave and Millimeter-wave Passive
Structure5 (T Itoh, ed.), ch.5, pp. 334-380, New York John
Willy and Sons, 1989

444
 Gaussian pulse distortion on microstrip lines Gaussianpulse distortion on microstip lines
I,
..
..+..+.. undistorted
- signal line
-----___ sense line 2
.......... sense line 3
line 4
-_-_-.-.-sense

wls= 1
........................

time in nanoseconds

o a.* ai ats az ria a3 09

time in nanoseconds

o am ai ais 0.2 OSI 03 as

4 2 . time in nanoseconds
time in nanoseconds (4
Fig3 At 1 = 40mm, the outputs on four-line systems (undistorted signal, signal line: and sense line
responses shown in the left graphs. (Sense line responses are plotted in the expanded scale on the
right).(a) One-layer board. (b) Two-layer board. ( c )Two-layer, optimized board.

445
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-
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02 ozs oa as a4 ou os o s as az 02s 03 os a+ ou os o s 06

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tune in nanoseconds

(4 time in nanoseconds

Fig.4 At 1 = lOOmm, the outputs on four-line systems (undistorted signal, signal line and sense line
responses shown in the left graphs. (Sense line responses are plotted in the expanded scale on the
right). (a) One-layer board. (b) Two-layer board. (c)Two-layer, optimized board.

446
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ass '
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timein nanoseconds
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Fig9 At 1 = 200mm, the outputs on four-line systems (undistorted signal, signal line and sense line
responses shown in the left graphs. (Sense line responses also plotted in the expended scale on the
right). (a) One-layer board. (b) Two-layer board. (c) Two-layer, optimized board.

447