DesignCon 2022 Schedule Builder

Any coupling event between different elements within an IC affects its performance. Furthermore, if the IC near field is interfering with components on the Printed Circuit Board (PCB), multiple possible reactive events could generate problems relating to Power Integrity (PI), Signal Integrity (SI) or EMC compliance issues.

Presented experimental data demonstrate how the IC near field interference could be detected through measurement using the H-field vector probe. Higher resolution scans identified the coupled sources' locations along with various coupling configurations. The prime detected source of the IC magnetic field appeared to be an inductor with a horizontally oriented coil loop. The observed distortions of its torus-like vector field imply the presence of interference with other components. H-vector analysis for different probe orientations revealed the types of various coupling and their origins. Different test setup parameters, such as resolution step and probe rotation, provided a trade-off between accuracy and uncertainty of the magnetic field assessment when evaluating of the sources and nature of electromagnetic interference problems. For the analysis conducted, we were able to identify an SI issue which impacted the data rate over the USB C interface, thus impacting optimal performance.

Takeaway

ICs' in-chip coupling events could be detected through measurement of the magnetic field using the H-vector probe rotating 360 degrees.

Intended Audience

Anyone with an interest in IC or PCB design would benefit from the presented methodology, which seeks to deliver a precise and comprehensive assessment of sources of cross-talk in complex reactive near-field vector distributions using the 360-degree probe rotation technique.