Impact of surface reactance and skin depth for effective surface wave-based communication between the integrated circuits of printed circuit board

The copper traces for printed circuit board (PCB) applications proved to be less suitable for high frequency communications. Surface wave communication-based wave guide with the properties of high field confinement at its conductor and the dielectric interface along with less dispersion, suits well for inter chip communication at higher frequencies. For effective wave propagation through the proposed channel, an analysis on the surface reactance and skin depth is required, which also accounts for proper channel construction. This research focuses mainly on these parameters to come up with the optimal channel design conditions. From the complete analysis, the high surface reactance of the channel with lower skin depth levels gives path to high channel propagation efficiency, keeping the height of the dielectric to a particular level, and the optimal surface power integration throughout the channel is achieved. The analysis was performed considering different frequency levels ranging from 100 GHz to 500 GHz. Considering surface reactance over the j100 to j400 range, which results in power integration up to 99.6% at the interface of conductor and dielectric, it is better than the theoretical values of copper traces. Copyright © 2022 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.