| With the continually increasing operating frequencies, signal integrity and interconnect analysis in high-speed designs is becoming increasingly important. Recently, several algorithms were proposed for macromodeling and transient analysis of distributed transmission line interconnect networks. Techniques such as the method of characteristics yield fast transient results for long delay lines. However, they do not guarantee the passivity of the macromodel. It has been demonstrated that preserving passivity of the macromodel is essential to guarantee a stable global transient simulation. On the other hand, methods such as matrix rational approximation provide efficient macromodels for lossy coupled lines, while preserving the passivity. However, for long delay lines, these methods require higher order approximations, making the macromodel inefficient.; To address the above difficulties, this thesis presents a new efficient algorithm for passive and compact macromodeling of distributed transmission lines. The new method employs delay extraction prior to approximating the exponential stamp of the line, while guaranteeing the passivity. Closed-form delay extraction-based equivalent circuits are developed, which are obtained analytically in terms of the per-unit-length parameters of the line and pre-determined coefficients. The new method enables fast transient simulation of both on-chip and off-chip interconnects. In addition, the delay extraction-based macromodeling technique has been extended to sensitivity analysis. Several practical test cases are presented to validate the accuracy and efficiency of the new algorithm. |
