AN ALGORITHM FOR COMPUTING THE SIGNAL PROPAGATION ON LOSSY VLSI INTERCONNECT SYSTEMS IN THE TIME DOMAIN

An algorithm for the computation of signal propagation in lossy interconnect systems at the chip as well as at the board level is presented. The algorithm allows us to handle effects like delay, dispersion, reflection, and electromagnetic coupling sufficiently. Especially for large systems of lines these effects cannot be treated by existing general purpose network analysis programs because of excessive computer runtime and numerical instabilities. To be able to handle line systems in a nonlinear circuit environment (e.g. CMOS inverters) the algorithm operates in the time domain. It is implemented in a computer program called LISIM which yields high accuracy, good stability, and small computation time. Simulation results are given for on-chip line systems of medium size based on the slow-wave mode.