Development and applications of the cavity model and FDTD for power integrity and EMI problems

This dissertation discusses four topics relevant to power integrity and EMC. The first topic deals with 3D-FDTD modeling of thin power delivery planes. A skin-effect algorithm with coefficients suitable for any good conductors has been implemented in FDTD. With the skin-effect algorithm and a data extrapolation method, the 3D-FDTD has been successfully applied to model thin power-bus structures, where the skin-effect loss is appreciable.; The second topic proposes an efficient approach to model power delivery networks with cavity models and closed-form expressions of parasitic inductance associated with the interconnects of decoupling capacitors. Combining the cavity models and the closed-form expressions of the parasitics, the approach has been successfully applied to analyze arbitrary shaped power distribution networks.; The third topic deals with the noise in power delivery planes due to via transitions in differential signals. Differential and common-mode transfer impedances are proposed to analyze noise coupled to (from) the power delivery network noise from (to) via transitions in differential signals. The impact of signal current imbalances on power-bus noise and the benefit of differential signals compared to single-ended signal are quantified.; The last section of this dissertation investigates the electromagnetic coupling mechanism associated with heatpipe/heatspreader structures using experiments and FDTD methods. Several practically achievable EMI mitigation approaches are proposed.