Practical approach to power integrity-driven design process for power-delivery networks

Abstract

The authors present a practical design process that considers the power noise problem in CPU blocks for application processors used in smart TVs. The target impedance is determined by modelling the RLC circuit of a system-on-chip power net. The target impedance of a power delivery network is then determined by applying the extracted chip current profile for finalising the design budget. The authors modelled the on-chip power net by combining vector network analyser measurements with an on-chip model for power integrity analysis. The authors demonstrated the optimisation and design strategy by using a ball grid array ball interconnection and case studies on the placement of multilayer ceramic capacitors. The simulation results showed good agreement with the measurement results. The error in the minimum value (negative direction) by voltage droop was less than 8.6%, while the difference in voltage noise ripple was 2.69% for a criterion of 1.1 V assuming a worst-case condition of 1.2 V.