Electromagnetic Bandgap Structures for Broadband Switching Noise Mitigation in High-speed Packages

Title of dissertation: ELECTROMAGNETIC BANDGAP STRUCTURES FOR BROADBAND SWITCHING NOISE MITIGATION IN HIGH-SPEED PACKAGES Shahrooz Shahparnia, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Dissertation directed by: Professor Omar M. Ramahi Mechanical Engineering Department, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department For the past two decades, silicon-based complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology and circuits have been advancing along an exponential path of shrinking device dimensions, increasing density, increasing speed, and decreasing cost. Electronic design complexity is in constant acceleration and new designs have to incorporate new features, which inevitably will require faster processing time. In recent years this acceleration rate has drastically decreased because of various constraints, such as static power dissipation due to leakage current, the effect of wires and interconnects and the decreased immunity of modern devices to noise, interference and voltage fluctuations on their Power Distribution Network (PDN). Lowering the power supply voltages and hence the power consumption of a single transistor, has been possible due to the fact that these new technologies are able to provide smaller and faster transistors with lower threshold levels. The benefits associated with lowering the threshold levels of the transistors used in a given device comes at a high-price, specifically the decrease of immunity of such device to noise and fluctuations of the power supply voltage. The research work carried out in this dissertation, addresses the concept of embedding Electromagnetic Bandgap (EBG) structures in conventional power distribution networks in order to increase the immunity of the circuits that feed from such networks to noise and voltage fluctuations. Underlying theories of Embedded EBG (EEBG) structures and design methodologies are presented. Various design concepts, based on simulations, measurements and different modeling techniques developed during this research work are presented. The accuracy of these methods is analyzed by comparing results of these techniques with experimental results. Also, this work shows that EEBG structures are not only very effective in the suppression of switching noise in high-speed circuit but also they suppress Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) caused by such switching and they provide increased immunity for their PDN to external sources of noise. Finally new EEBG configurations, topologies and miniaturized structures are introduced that overcome the limitations of current switching noise mitigation techniques, including initial EEBG designs to provide immunity against high-bandwidth noise, voltage fluctuations and radiation, new EEBG configurations, topologies and miniaturized structures are introduced and their efficacy is demonstrated. The novel designs developed during this research provide noise mitigation over a wide range of frequencies, and also extends the suppression frequency range into the sub-gigahertz region, only using a single EBG design with smaller patches than those used in previous works.