Equivalent circuit modeling of board connectors

Equivalent circuits allow the analysis of interconnect components like board connectors in a circuit simulator where a full-wave analysis would require an unacceptably high computational effort. In this paper we present a method for developing a SPICE-model for a board connector embedded in a test setup. The equivalent circuits for the interconnect paths of the multilayer test boards are derived from measured time-domain reflectometry (TDR) waveforms. This technique is not suitable for components-with multiple couplings. Hence, the lumped circuit for the board connector is determined by using 2-D simulations. An efficient finite-difference method for calculating the per-unit-length capacitance and inductance matrices for straight and weakly curved multiconductor transmission lines is presented.